As part of the three-day workshop in Accra, organized by WAN and The Media in Education Trust of Ghana, a classroom of young learners received documents resembling official passports to use and record the amount of reading they do in one day, earning visas as they accomplish various tasks. Some of the assignments include finding newspaper articles and photos that relate to subjects they are studying in school or finding familiar and new vocabulary words in the paper.

Ellicot Seade, the executive director of MiET-Gh, an education development organization, said the project "enriches our current programme objective, namely, the use of other learning and teaching resources, other than the conventional textbooks, to promote learning and to revive reading habits among learners."

A concept developed by Dutch consultant Gerard van der Weijden, the Reading Passport is part of WAN’s Newspapers in Education Development project, whose objective is to introduce and reinforce the idea of using newspapers in classrooms to media executives, educational authorities and teachers in developing countries. The project is being funded by a grant from Norway-based Norske Skog.

"I expect an enthusiastic reception from both teachers and students owing to the fact that the passport is a new experiment," Seade said. "The passport will be an added source of excitement for learners and teachers alike."

Six teachers attending the conference are returning to their schools with passports to use immediately in their classrooms. After using the product in the coming months, the classes of "Passport Pioneers" will recommend any necessary revisions before a final version of the passport is developed for wider distribution.

"We are using Ghana very much as a test case for everything, including basic content and distribution," said Aralynn McMane, the Director of Development and Education for WAN. "We also know, however, that the circumstances will be slightly different in each country. Eventually, we will produce downloadable versions in several languages that allow a quick tailoring of a passport for each country."

For more information about the WAN Newspapers in Education Development project, contact NIE@wan.asso.fr.

Following the meeting in Ghana, WAN representatives will attend a conference in Dakar, Senegal from 29 to 31 March to speak about the role of the newspaper and the newspaper association in promoting media literacy. The three-day conference will concentrate on teaching citizenship through media education and is organized by the Panos Institute, West Africa and CLEMI, the French Education Ministry’s media education unit. Over 50 media professionals are expected at the meeting, whose aim includes a discussion of ideas for strengthening NIE projects in Senegal and other West African countries.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 72 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 101 countries, 13 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr.