The national campaign is on the theme, "Reading for Progress".

The government, through the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Library Authority have declared 2019 as a 'National Year of Reading' in an effort to promote and sustain literacy and lifelong learning to improve on knowledge and skills of the citizenry to significantly contribute to national development.

The move, is aimed at ensuring the implementation of reading related programmes, events and workshops in libraries and schools to encourage people to read more and build positive reading habits.

The Regional Minister explained that education, played critical role in the socio-economic development of the country and reading was the major tool to achieving better educational standards to propel sustainable economic growth and national development.

She said reading was very important for the development of every child and indicated that all available efforts and resources should be geared towards promoting reading attitudes among children.

Madam Abayage tasked all stakeholders including teachers, parents and siblings to always teach and encourage their wards to read and cultivate the habits of reading in order to improve their knowledge.

This, she said would ensure that; "we produce the kind of children we want in future to contribute to national development."The Regional Minister acknowledged the challenges facing libraries in the region, particularly the regional library and said she has had discussions with the regional librarian and plans were advanced to rehabilitate and restock the library with current and relevant books to encourage reading.

She said while her outfit worked to restock the library, and indicated that corporate bodies should be encouraged to assist the facility to realize the purpose for which it was established.

Madam Anne Estella Kye-eebo, the Bolgatanga Municipal Director of the Ghana Education Service who spoke on the theme, "The role of the teacher and parent", noted that education of children was a collective effort from all stakeholders and therefore, the contribution of the teacher and parent could not be overemphasized.

She said children were quick to emulate whatever their parents and teachers do at home and in schools and urged parents and teachers to imbibe in themselves the spirit of reading so as to motivate their children to also read and improve on their knowledge.

Mr Leslie Kasanga, the Upper East Regional Librarian, underscored the importance of libraries and said it was the gate way to the enlightened world and encouraged members of the public, especially the youth to frequently visit the library to enhance their educational potentials.

The Regional Librarian indicated that the libraries in the region were faced with lots of challenges, which stifled their smooth operation and appealed to government and other Non-Governmental Organizations to assist the libraries to rehabilitate and restock with current books, furniture as well as help them to meet their operational cost in order to function effectively.

The celebration brought together stakeholders in education including the Ghana, Education Service, teachers, parents, librarians and pupils from some basic schools in the region. The Upper East Region has five state established libraries located at Bolgatanga, Navrongo, Bongo, Bawku and Sandema.