IS READING CULTURE ACTUALLY DECLINING AMONG NIGERIANS?

“Reading culture is declining” it is a cliché many people believe to be the gospel truth. Some will argue that it is the medium or format information is presented that has changed. People in this group believe that as technology evolves, availability of information in diverse electronic formats, is why resources digitally presented are preferred to print. Nigeria’s youth, just like their counterparts across the world have become obsessed with developments in digital technology, which have revolutionized the way businesses are conducted, instructions delivered in educational institutions, facilitate global integration and development of mechanisms, which have aided governance world-wide. The youth are daily bombarded with information from different sources, some specifically targeted at them. However, their capacity to discern information they are regularly confronted with, depends on the quality of the reading skills they have acquired at young age, growing into adulthood. Although, there is dearth of statistically significant data to support whether reading culture is declining or not.

In this digital era, energy should be expended on how government at the three tiers could be made more responsive to their responsibilities through provision of functional education for national development. In Nigeria’s constitution, education is in the concurrent list and there is no want of policies to promote literacy and human capital development. There is need for the experts and policy makers to develop practicable model, which places emphasis on the roles of family in reading skills development at pre-school and early school education. This involves developing a strategy, which guarantees availability of relevant data on assessment of impact of any policy. For example, the impact of the School Feeding Programme on school enrolment could easily be determined by simply observing the trend in enrolment during a specified period. However, obtaining data on the yet to be implemented policy of making prevalent local language in a local government area, the medium of instruction, is one area experts on educational matters must make their experience and expertise to bear. A more elaborate and scientific methodology, which provides reliable baseline and actual data useful in determining the statistical significance of the impact of any policy, will be needed.

Developing reading skills from young age will help to build self-confidence, cognitive capacity and comprehensive skills needed for prompt and timely processing of information. A child’s capacity to make a well-informed decision is better built from childhood through reading, which could be made more rewarding when he/she spends quality time with family members, especially parents, to share opinions about the main characters in a book, its key messages and the relevance to contemporary real-life issues. Therefore, disaggregation of students’ performance through a system, which allows parents to immediately track the impact of any policy on their children and together with the school teachers and the relevant authorities device corrective measures to address the situation. A child with learning difficulties or who is slow to learn, could be helped, if the problem is detected at home early as his/her confidence, is more easily re-built. The help he gets in the school might not be enough to let him overcome his weakness, when the whole class knows about it.

However, the library remains the hub, agenda for national development could be set and executed, through raising of awareness level on importance of high reading culture in a country. Activities such as serialization of some selected published work; monthly book review to stimulate public’s interest in published work; online essay and reading competitions to test comprehensive skills in the two targeted age groups (9-14 and 15-21); and creation of YouTube channel to live-stream programmes to be executed under our theme #Readyourwaytothetop. These programmes will include interview sessions with important personalities who have distinguished themselves in the various fields of human endeavour and whose life-stories could inspire young ones. The creative and innovative tendencies in our youth will therefore, be challenged as some will wish to surpass achievements show-case.

The assertion that the reading culture is declining in Nigeria, has neither been based on any nation-wide survey nor States’ assessment of how family and early school education has impacted on the development of reading skills at the local level. The Ready to Read, Ready to Learn initiative and the No Child Left Behind (Act 2002), provide exemplary models for nations desirous of promoting reading culture and ramping up literacy level for national development. An amendment in 2009, which aims to improve learning through school libraries (LSL) and provides fund for development of school libraries based on local peculiarities. It is high time stakeholders began to act proactively and develop protocols for assessing the impact of measures intended to improve reading skills and the general literacy level. Baseline data gathering, is an important strategy, which provides information about the status quo prior to the execution of a project or implementation of policy and allows objective comparison with outcomes. This also allows identification of gaps and corrective actions taken, where necessary. Data gathering on the current level of reading skills development prior to implementation of local language as medium of instruction in early school education across the country, is a development NLN is taken seriously and adequately prepared to undertake. Therefore, volunteers are needed at the local level across Nigeria to collaborate with the Library in playing her role as crucial stakeholder in the education sector.

Libraries around the world are leveraging technology to remain relevant and competitive in the provision and delivery of services to their patrons, irrespective of space and time. They have relied on technology to widen the reach and participation in their programmes. However, resourceful use of technology, especially in developing countries such as Nigeria, has continued to be challenged by the need to strike a balance between provision of enabling environment and checking abuses associated with technology use. The young ones are technology savvy to the extent that parental control measures, which might be installed on digital devices could be manipulated and made a mess of any attempt to prevent abusive use. One resourceful and effective way, the society can cope, is to ensure that the reading skills are well-developed from young age, which will help their capacities to thread with caution, especially when they surf the Internet un-guided.

Therefore, interested volunteers willing to collaborate with NLN in the execution of her various programmes concerned with promotion of reading culture should apply through this portal and submit a 350-word essay on how he or she could contribute to an improved reading culture in his or her local government area. Teachers and non-professional librarians would be given preference and short-listed applicants would be made to undergo free three months online certificate course in Librarianship and Data Science. The deadline for submission of application is 4^th of July 2023.

However, individuals who do not have time to participate as volunteers, could contribute to effort aimed at promoting reading culture at their local communities, by submitting a not than 500-word essay through this portal, on or before 3^rd August, 2023.

Abdulazeez, Mistura K. (Mrs)

Deputy- Director (VLSD)