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Dr Lawrence Tetteh, a world renowned Evangelist and Economist, has identified the act of reading as a major drive towards national development.

     He said the ability of a people to read is the measure of their level of basic literacy and foreign investors could use this as an index of the investment potential of a country.

     “Indeed, Kaiser, the aluminium magnate who came to Ghana to explore the possibility of establishing what later VALCO at Tema became, was influenced in his decision making by the sight of the first taxi driver he met at the Accra Airport, reading a newspaper, when he arrived in Ghana for the first time in the late 1950’s… This is why we have to take the education of our people more seriously than ever,” he said.

     Dr Tetteh was speaking at an event to mark the beginning of the 75th Anniversary of Odorgonno Senior High School in Accra, on the theme: “The role of reading and research, in attaining academic excellence.”

     Dr Tetteh, who was an old student of the school noted that today education requires more than just the ability to read, adding: “One needs to be able, among others, to analyse, compare and contrast items of information to arrive at conclusions that enhance our body of knowledge, push out the frontiers of scientific advance and where necessary, revise our opinions when faced with findings contrary to current thinking.”

     He said: “This is the essence of research, which also requires that we make connections between data, facts and received knowledge. It is therefore incumbent on our educational institutions and authorities to make reading and the pursuit of knowledge through research an indispensable aspect of our education right from kindergarten to university level to the point where it becomes second nature to the products of our institutions. 

     “In fact this is the case in other jurisdictions across Europe and North America and the earlier we availed ourselves of such knowledge and techniques in education the better for us in our pursuit of economic development and national advancement.”

     Dr Tetteh also talked about the need for the youth to acquire information, communication technology skills, hence the need for the acquisition of modern learning resources if the nation is to “tease the best out of our children”.

     “Our children are very curious and they find every means to satisfy their desire to use modern technology to facilitate their quest for knowledge. Due to the absence of IT resources, they are found in internet cafes playing computer games and neglecting their studies.”

     He said the acquisition of a library that would be stocked not only with books but with CDs would go a long way to help boost the interest in reading and promote interest in research in schools by channelling the energies of these children into educationally fruitful activities.

     Dr Tetteh observed that lack of consistent and comprehensive education through the local languages has contributed to the hindrance of academic, scientific and technological excellence “in our dialects”.