Lead-out Education Foundation, a Lagos-based non-profit organisation committed to raising competent, functional and transformation-conscious students and youths has donated books to over 100 students in commemoration of World Book Day 2019 as a way of promoting, and reviving reading culture which could be described as poor in Nigeria.
The donation was done at an event it held recently at Word Bible Church, Lagos, following the preview of a movie titled ‘Gifted Hands’, which details a story of how Ben Carson, former neurosurgeon and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, rose to prominence by being committed to reading.
Through the movie, the students present at the event, themed “The Value for the Book” and organised in partnership with Nosak Group, drew lessons on the benefits, significance of developing a culture for reading. Students were given note books, and other literary works.
NIGERIA was rated by the World Culture Score Index as one of the countries in the world that has the lowest reading culture in 2017, “hence, it behoves us to take advantage of World Book Day, which is a global initiative to celebrate reading and books,” said Irene Udosen, Founder, Lead-out Education Foundation.
“Knowledge is power; knowledge is education, not certificate or other stuff seemingly it that are not it. This is what our event is intended to emphasize. Hence we have converged to reaffirm the value for the book. To help students see reading as a bridge that connects them to their dreams so that they realize when they pick up a book to read, they’re building their future. To obtain an education that serves personal and societal needs as well as bring wealth, we need to go back to the value for the book. Exams questions also need to be reviewed. We need more of critical thinking questions so as to kick out malpractices, and help pupils develop problem solving skills,” she further said, explaining the essence of the gathering.
Speaking to BusinessDay, Udosen who assessed the reading culture in Nigeria as frail said the current reality is as result of society’s derailment from emphasizing the value for the books to emphasizing certificate, materialism, and connections.
“So, students have now adjusted to what seems to be most important to society rather than what will matter for productivity. ‘Why study when it won’t matter at the end’ is the mind-set! Though, it back fires at the end. Unqualified graduates and misfits are the result,” she said.
There is a serious decline in our reading culture today. Although the advent of technology has made it easy, and more interesting to read, many students are not utilising technology much. They would rather play video games than read a book on their gadgets. So it is important to find ways on how to improve reading, and inculcate reading culture in the younger generation, said Kenneth Adejumoh, Corporate Communications Manager, Nosak Group.
“For students to begin appreciating reading culture, they first need to understand the value of reading. Parents and teachers should be deliberate in ensuring that students engage in reading. Government should reintroduce public libraries, and a strong library culture in schools. The ministry of education should reintroduce the library system into the public space and in schools.
And Libraries should be one of the criteria for accrediting schools,” Adejumoh told BusinessDay.
“Let’s bring up policies that resurrect the standards of education. There should be constant retraining of teachers so that they will appreciate the trends in education, we can’t be teaching with the curricula of 9180. It can’t work because things have evolved,” he adds.
Desmond Okon
