Palani (2012) believes that effective reading is an important means of effective learning and reading is intertwined with the overall learning process and therefore success requires an educational successful reading habit. He believes that reading is identifying symbols and combining the corresponding meaning with them. This requires identification and understanding. Comprehension skills help the student understand the meaning of words in isolation and in appropriate context. Before the advent of television, both young and old found enough time to read.
In addition to teachers, other professionals are used to spending their free time reading in English and common literature. English high schools almost always required additional reading from their students. But all this has become a thing of the past. Palani (2012) also added that, nowadays, reading habit has lost its meaning, as both young and old are glued to the television. As far as educational institutions are concerned, coaching students for exams seems to be the end of our entire education system.
Many researchers like Ogbodo (2002), Bhan Gupta (2010) and Singh (2011) have done work on reading, especially how it affects student achievement. However, most of this work is from the international community. Few of these, such as Ward (1997), Agbezree (2001), held in Ghana were limited to primary and secondary education. It is against this background that it has become necessary to conduct a similar study in Ghana to examine the impact of reading skills on the academic performance of students in tertiary education in Ghana, with particular emphasis at the Koforidua Polytechnic.
Problem statement
The problem with most students that contributes to their poor performance on tests and exams is the lack of proper reading skills. For excellent performance, there is a need for the student to form good reading and learning habits. Currently, due to the influence of the media, people do not show much interest in reading books; magazines and magazines, among others (Palani, 2012). Even the caterpillar of examination illegalities can be traced back to the predominant interests of poor reading and habits among a wide variety of students.
In addition, by-products of scientific and technological invention and innovation have also greatly contributed to the dwindling fortunes of good reading practice among the majority of students. Today, many students choose to watch movies and other shows on their TV screens, listening to audio discs, watching video discs, among others (MASO, 2012). Many parents and teachers complain about students of our generation who have not developed reading habits among themselves.
Officials of the Western African Examination Council and English language teachers have complained about the kind of English language written by today's generation of students (WAEC, 2008). The end result is the poor performance of many graduate students. One of the many problems that students currently face is perhaps not their inability to read, but their lack of interest. From the above statement, the work was carried out with the aim of examining reading habits among students and the impact on their academic performance in higher education, in particular among students of the Koforidua Polytechnic Institute.
