Category: Online Special

Stakeholders in the education sector in the South West states have underscored the importance of libraries and the need to stock them, stressing that the Internet was not a substitute.

The respondents, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews across the zone, said that internet publications in the form of e-books were no substitute to hard copies.

In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the Coordinator of the State Library Board, Mrs Adebola Akinrobi, observed that the emergence of e-books had adversely affected reading habit.

She, however, maintained that in spite of the seeming fall in the patronage of libraries, many students and research fellows still utilized such public facilities.

“As often as we get funds, we stock our library with relevant books while latest editions of books are also purchased.

“This has attracted many people to the library.”

However, an investigation by NAN revealed that many schools in Ibadan metropolis lacked well stocked libraries.

Schools visited included Urban Day Secondary Grammar School, Oluyole High School and Basorun-Ogunmola Secondary School, all in Ibadan metropolis.

According to Mr. Wale Rasheed, the Librarian in charge of Basorun-Ogunmola Secondary School, the neglect of libraries in government schools was inimical to the school system.

Rasheed urged the government to equip libraries and make them conducive for students to read.

‘The reason why this school is called a government school is because it is run and managed by the government.

“Therefore, the government should try and make the school conducive enough for learning, especially with respect to the library.

“Most students don’t use the library any more due to the fact that the books in there are either outdated or old.’’

Rasheed, who also maintained that public schools hardly get book donors, said: “We don’t get donations from private individuals at all and this is disheartening and sad to hear.

“ The last time we reached out to publishing houses for help, we only got one response which decided to give us one book for each subject.

“ Even the last time the government gave us books was about two years ago and that was just Mathematics and English textbooks.

“ For these reasons, we don’t lend books to students to take home, they only use them within the school premises,’’ he said.

Expressing their views, two students of the Basorun-Ogunmola High School, Oluwaseyi Adetumobi and Tolani Taiwo, said they would prefer reading books on their phones because it was more convenient.

NAN survey also showed that libraries in private schools were better stocked with books and well utilised than those in government-owned schools.

For example, All Souls’ High School, a missionary school in the Bodija area of Ibadan, has a well equipped library,courtesy of donations.

Mr Adeeko Michael, the Vice-Principal of the school, told NAN that the school had been supported by many donors.

The school, NAN discovered, also has an equipped computer room where students can access books online and read.

A student of the school, Grace Aaron, told NAN that reading in the school Library was always a pleasant experience given the availability of current editions.
At Kingdom Private Secondary School located in Akobo area, NAN also saw a well-stocked library.

The Principal of the school, Mrs Shola Taiwo, said that the institution was making concerted efforts to continually ensure that facilities such as the library were updated for learning.

NAN investigation, however, revealed that many students preferred to use their mobile electronic devices rather than patronise the library.

Due to the introduction of online library, pdf documents and e-books, many students and adults told NAN that they preferred sitting in their comfort zones and reading from such gadgets.

Many respondents told NAN that finding a book in the library was more tedious than downloading straight from the internet and reading at a convenient time.

Some, however, argued that books in hard copy format in the library could not be compared with soft copies, citing the challenge of power and the fact that hard copies could be passed on to another generation.

Meanwhile, a don, Prof. Christopher Oluwadare, has urged the Ekiti Government to increase its annual budgetary allocation for the development of libraries in schools.

Oluwadare, a professor of Sociology at the Ekiti State University, told NAN in Ado-Ekiti that equipping school libraries was paramount in achieving the growing quest for quality education.

He expressed concern over the sorry state of libraries in some schools and urged the government to embark on measures to redress this situation.

He also urged the government to reinforce its inspectorate division in the Ministry of Education to ensure hat public and private schools inculcate the habit of reading in school children.

Also reacting to the issue, a retired Permanent Secretary in the state, Chief Kayode Ijaduola, decried the current trend whereby people of school age were no longer interested in reading because of electronic devices.

He canvassed a stakeholders meeting of the government, student leaders and parents, to fashion out the possibility of making library studies compulsory at both primary and secondary school levels.

Meanwhile, Kolawole Odunsi, a student union leader at the College of Education, Ikere Ekiti, has observed that the absence of the right type of books in school libraries was a major factor militating against effective use of the facility by students.

NAN correspondents, who visited some schools in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, Ikere-Ekiti, Ido-Ekiti as well as Aramoko-Ekiti, observed that though virtually all the schools visited had one or two buildings designated as library, not all of them were well stocked.

It was further discovered that those that appeared to be stocked with books do not have the latest editions or books relevant to the students’ curriculum.

But the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Idowu Adelusi, told NAN that the present government under Gov. Ayo Fayose was determined to bring back the lost glory of education in the state.

He recalled that the Fayose, early this year, had promised to build a state-of-the-art central library within Ado-Ekiti township.

In Ilorin, the Kwara capital, principals and librarians in secondary schools decried the lack of books in school libraries.

The Principal of Oyun Baptist High School, ljagbo, Dr Abimbola Oloyede, told NAN in Ilorin that over 95 per cent of rural schools in the state disi not have functional libraries while the few available ones, were stocked with obsolete books.

Oloyede, a former state Chairman of the All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), noted that the lack of libraries in several secondary schools was also negatively affecting reading culture among students.

Isaac Adesina, a Vice Principal at St. Anthony Secondary School, Ilorin, told NAN that the government had not stocked the library in the school for a very long time.

He said that all the books in the school library were obsolete and outdated for the school curriculum.

Mrs Idowu Omotoyinbo, the staff in charge of the library, confirmed that books in the library were outdated and that the government had not stocked the library for a long time.

Omotoyinbo said that students only come to the library to read during their free periods, adding that they don’t borrow books from the library.

She further said that there were no multi-media or audio visual facilities in the library.

Similarly, at St. Barnabas Secondary School, Ilorin, the Librarian, Mr Caleb Awoyele, told NAN that the library in the school was not equipped with relevant books.

“We are having problems with textbooks; our books are outdated and government does not equip the library,’’ he said.

Awoyele said that the school authorities had appealed to the state government to provide relevant books to the school.

He said that students could only borrow story books while the few journals were not relevant to the school curriculum.

Several libraries visited by NAN correspondents had old books that were not useful for the current curriculum while some libraries were under lock and key.