Reading Culture: Education is not enough!

In Nigeria, it has been observed over time that reading culture is on a steady decline, because reading is seen to be exam-based. The issue is, why do you have to read when you don’t have any exam to write the next day? To be more exact, about 70% of students without prejudice to level […]

In Nigeria, it has been observed over time that reading culture is on a steady decline, because reading is seen to be exam-based. The issue is, why do you have to read when you don’t have any exam to write the next day? To be more exact, about 70% of students without prejudice to level of education, read for that singular purpose. This is largely because the system in which we operate in Nigeria is certificate-based, coupled with who –do- you –know syndrome. The issue is not can you do it or do you have the capacity to learn, which reading culture ensures, but in our today’s Nigeria, the question is, do you have a certificate, or better still, who do you know at the top. Day in and day out, we come across graduates with excellent paper qualification but who cannot construct a good simple sentence; neither can they effectively defend the certificates. People always confused certificate with good educational background. It is not always true that certificate automatically determines good educational background.

Parents can be charged guilty of the conspiracy of silence over the poor reading culture of their children and wards. In my community, parents are in the habits of patronizing the so-called “wonder centers”. At “wonder centers” you need to pay exorbitant registration fees, (malpractice fee), needless to say; you don’t have to write the exam to have your ‘9 As’.

 A poorly funded educational system, ill-trained teachers, coupled with incessant strikes in ivory towers cannot inculcate a functional reading culture.The economic condition in the country is not helping matters. Large numbers of the have- not are daily struggling to put three square meals on their table, and of course, developing a good reading becomes a forgone alternative. It is no longer news that with 54.4percent poverty ratio, it is not an issue of consternation that the readership rate is 1:5. This sad scenario, perhaps laid credence to the assertion been made that literacy rate is on a steady decline for the past 10 years in the country.

Haruna Manu Isah, 1, Kwarun Ajilo Close, Off-Majalisa Badarawa Kaduna. E-Mail:- [email protected].