Communication Specialist and Gender Advocate, Mercy Catherine Adjabeng, who is also the Founder of the Discovery Teen Foundation, has presented copies of her English book, Understanding English Literature, to the Teshie Presbyterian Senior High School, at a brief ceremony in the school. She also presented copies of the Discovery Teen Magazine.
Presenting the books valued at GH¢5000, the author, Ms. Adjabeng, who is herself a former English Language and Literature tutor of Wesley Girls’ High School in Cape Coast, said she was pleased to be supporting schools to achieve academic excellence.
“Having been a tutor for many years and dealing with adolescents, I have the opportunity to engage students in many ways. I’m convinced we all need to play roles in helping our young ones achieve academic excellence. That’s why I’m excited at this opportunity to contribute by donating these books to boost academic excellence of our students.
I know this is a timely intervention that would boost the academic performance of students in English language and Literature courses because it breaks down the concepts and techniques of Literature that make students think the subject is difficult.
Again, teachers can also use the book as a facilitator’s handbook to provide further information for their teaching. This is because the book ultimately aims at providing a complete guide for general reading, studying, and a straightforward approach to understanding and enjoying Literature. English is the language of instruction and assessment in schools; this means a poor command over the language affects performance no matter the level of skills.”
According to WAEC, over 45% of the candidates representing over 200,858 students failed in English Language and failed to the pass mark for English Language to enable them gain admission into the Tertiary institutions. Out of this number, 101,538 obtained E8 and F9 in English Language. This is a serious threat to the academic capital, labour force and sustainable development of this country.
“I’m pleased that schools like Wesley Girls’ High School, Archbishop Porter Girls’ School, St. Thomas Aquinas School and Armed Forces Senior High Technical Schools, who have benefited from these books, as well as students from other schools continue to give us positive feedback.”
Headmistress of the School, Wilhelmina Obuobisa-Attakora was grateful to Ms. Adjabeng for the donation. The Assistant Headmaster (Administration) was also full of praise for Ms. Adjabeng. He commended her for giving back to the society. He assured her the school would ensure the use of the books to reflect in the performance of the students. He also urged her to make time to engage both teachers and students to improve the learning and performance in both English and Literature, and like the proverbial Oliver Twist, requested that the school be gifted with books for other subjects.
Ms. Adjabeng expressed appreciation to the Minerals Development Fund and other benevolent individuals for their kind support. “I’m grateful to the Minerals Development Fund and other benevolent individuals for supporting this initiative because they equally believe that an investment in our young people is an investment in the future of this country’s human resource capital.”
She asked other corporate organisations and individuals to support the initiative. “I’d like to urge other parents, past students and corporate organisations to support me in scaling up this initiative of the distribution of her books to other schools, especially the underprivileged, in order to enhance the overall academic performance in literacy in the country. This will boost the understanding and performance of our students in English Language, thereby securing our academic and human resource capital.”
The Presbyterian Senior High School is a day community school in the populated district of Ledzokuku in the Greater Accra region. Its student population is a little over 2000.
Understanding English Literature is Mercy Catherine Adjabeng’s second publication. The first is the Discovery Teen Magazine, a publication which aims at informing and educating adolescents about the changes associated with their transition into adulthood. The magazine also aims at generating national sensitization and advocacy programmes to address issues of concern to the adolescents.
The writer is a highly enthusiastic, dynamic and results-oriented Communication Specialist, Gender Advocate and Founder of the Discovery Teen Foundation, continues to author books for other people. Mercy C. Adjabeng indicated that an English book that focuses on providing guidelines for good essay writing will soon be published.
