Future leaders are not reading

George Obilor was mildly amused when his 11-year-old son, Emmanuel, in response to a visitor's query, said he would like to become a writer like (Nobel laureate) Wole Soyinka. The grin instantly disappeared the next second when his son, a primary six student of Baruwa Primary School, Ijesha, revealed that he had never heard of any of the 10 novels reeled out by the enquiring visitor.

"Not only was it embarrassing, it was also like a revelation that I was not paying adequate attention to my son's education," said the single father of one. "What kind of schools are they building these days? This is definitely the last straw. He will remain at home until I find a private school."

Government acts

Equally appalled by poor reading among students, the Lagos State Government introduced a compulsory one-hour afterschool period, tagged Reading Time and Preparatory Period. The period, which aims to strengthen reading culture among public school students, holds on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays between 2:30pm and 3:30pm.

"The truth is that reading culture in Nigeria is generally poor," said deputy governor, Sarah Sosan, during the launch of the initiative at Ikeja Senior High School late October last year. "To make it worse, these days, most of our students hardly read, instead, they waste their precious time watching television or films, listening to music, playing video/computer games and surfing the Internet for unproductive programmes."

Mrs. Sosan, who also oversees the affairs of the Lagos Ministry of Education, attributed the poor reading culture to the rising incidents of low grades recorded in national examinations, and expressed optimism that the project would address the trend.

"One of the means of reclaiming the lost glory of our education system is the introduction of the Reading Time and Preparatory Period Programme, which coincides with the beginning of the new academic session; reading is a culture which we must all embrace wholeheartedly," she said.

Not enough books

An educationist, Omowale Ogunrinde, applauds the efforts of the state government at improving the education sector, but decried the unavailability of books at some public schools in the state. "It is no secret that the reading culture among students is very poor these days," she said. "Governor Fashola has achieved a lot of improvements in the state educational sector, but I think corporate organisations need to contribute by building mini libraries in some of these schools."

Mrs Ogunrinde is also the founder of Foundation for Skills Development, a nongovernmental organisation that has distributed, since 2007, over 5,000 books and educational materials to public schools in the state through its Smart Kids Project.

Parents should also contribute

Another educationist, Peter Chukwu, blames parents for the growing lack of interest shown by the youth in reading books. "When I was small, my parents did not rely on the school libraries, but made sure that I was provided with the books and also made sure that I read them," he said.

"These days you see a lot of parents thinking that buying books for their children starts and ends with those prescribed by the schools. Some parents are even too busy that they forget to monitor if their kids are reading. The fact that a child has good grades in class is not enough; he/she should be encouraged to read novels and even newspapers. For those of them that have computers, parents should ensure that they read eBooks and not just surf the net directionless," added Mr. Chukwu.

Mr Obilor is certainly taking this advice to heart; as he not only succeeded in switching his son to a private school, but has also sworn to buy a book every month and make sure that Emmanuel is sufficiently prepared on his way to become a Nobel prize winner.