Elevate World Book Day into national event. Ghana Book Publishers Association appeals to govt

The Ghana Book Publishers Association (GBPA) has called for the elevation of the celebration of the World Book Day into the country’s cultural events.

The day which falls on April 23 every year, the association said, could be used to encourage the culture of reading locally published books among schoolchildren as well as used in promoting national culture.

The President of the GBPA, Mr Elliot Agyare, who made the suggestion at a media briefing in Accra, said by adopting the day as a national event, it would help in promoting the customs and traditions of the country.

 “Our desire to provide all our people, not just the affluent, with the same opportunities will continue to be a pipe dream unless we look again at the subject of literacy and specifically reading,” he said.

Importance of local publishers

According to him, the lack of realisation by policy makers of the crucial nature and role of the indigenous book industry in national development is perhaps the greatest impediment to the development of the industry.

He said the country’s educational space had been flooded with foreign books and materials, which were inimical to the national orientation of children who are the future leaders.

“Let me add that books, especially books for education in the lower levels, need to be produced locally by indigenous publishers. If books from other countries are allowed to be used by primary schoolchildren, it will lead to their orientation and socialisation being influenced by other cultures,” he stated.

Some participants in the press conference.

He said publishing was closely linked to culture and education, and those two were deeply rooted in national goals and aspirations and added that “it is dangerous to depend on foreign ideas and thinking for education and cultural enhancements.”

Publishers in many countries, he said, served as indigenous knowledge and cultural gatekeepers, especially at a time when the whole world was talking about taking keen interest in issues of intellectual property rights.

“The rationale behind a strong independent, local publishing industry is still valid today, maybe more so,” he said.

Challenges

Touching on some of the challenges that the industry faced, Mr Agyare said publishing in many developed countries were regarded as catalysts for national development as it contributed to education and cultural enrichment, but in Ghana  publishing was not regarded by policy makers.

He said the unregulated open market being practised by the country was also a source of challenge as the market was flooded with a lot of foreign books, some of which were not relevant to the development of the country.

The market, he said, was also small and continued to shrink as it got squeezed with overstocks, discounted and even secondhand books.

The government book procurement process, he said, was also irregular as it did not follow any pattern for effective planning by publishers.