A non-governmental Organisation (NGO), Leah Charity Foundation, and some corporate bodies, English and Literature Teachers Association of Nigeria (ELTAN), Kwara State chapter are poised to revive the reading culture in Nigeria.
Indeed, the NGO has plans to reintroduce reading clubs to public secondary schools in Kwara State.
The foundation, with Lantern Books, Indomie Noodles, Coca Cola, Nestle Foods, is camping 202 junior secondary schools across the 16 local government areas of the state for a-five day reading exercise. The reading camp, ended cast (Friday), at Sapati International School, Ilorin, the state capital.
Declaring the event open, the Deputy Governor, Elder Peter Kishra fingered dwindling reading culture as one of the factors responsible for rampant cases of examination malpractices in Nigeria.
Kishra said: “This is why the ugly menace called examination malpractice is still with us today. It can only be tackled when students imbibe the culture of reading.”
The deputy governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Alhaji Saka Onimago, added that the effort was complementing the state government’s reform agenda.
His words: “Today, we are here to take another giant stride in our educational development to establishing clubs in all junior secondary schools in the state. About 202 students are gathered here to participate in the programme as reading ambassadors of their colleagues in the 16 local government areas of the state. This is to revive reading culture in our schools. It is a great challenge to all of us as education stakeholders to ensure the success of what is starting from here. It must be sustained so that this great work will not be in vain.”
The Founding Trustee of the Leah Charity Foundation and wife of Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed, Omolewa said the schools were selected after a thorough and competitive process.
She said:“The participating schools will become the first set of ambassadors for the foundation’s determination to ensure that reading becomes an important part of the school lives of our children.
“The process for the event started a few months ago. During this one week exercise, participants are going to be exposed to the importance of reading and the skills that are necessary for reading. The reading clinic, which they will participate in, will focus on imparting basic reading skills, how to read and understand as well as the importance of reading as a life-long skill on the children. The children will also be mentored by carefully selected people who have good stories to tell about how reading has impacted on their lives.
“To achieve this, we would like to appeal to the state government, corporate organisations and public spirited citizens of our dear state to kindly come forward to collaborate with us in our desire to prepare our children for the challenges of the constant change which our world grapples with.”
Earlier, the state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Comfort Afolayan described reading camps as an approach to enhance the potentials of children and enable them contribute to the development of their communities.
According to her, children constitute a sizeable proportion of the country’s population, hence the need to pay adequate attention to their problems and needs.
