Promoting Reading Culture Among Nigerian Students: The Tripartite Roles Of Parents, Teachers, And The School -By Emmanuel Momoh

The Nigerian educational sector is plagued by a myriad of challenges ranging from inadequate funding, poor infrastructure and also the presence of substandard teachers who lack the skills to disseminate knowledge. Over the years however, one major challenge the nation has not been able to tackle effectively is the lack of reading culture among Nigerian students. Those who are affected are mostly students of pre-tertiary institutions. That is, students who are both in the primary and secondary stages of education.

Since education as a concept and as a process involves the building of the mental and intellectual capacity and with its ultimate aim, been to curb ignorance and provide and the necessary skills for human and societal development, there is the current need for strategies to be mapped out to curb the menace of poor reading culture among Nigerian students, in order to reduce the constant occurrence of mass failures in examinations both within and outside the school.

This article has identified three major stakeholders who have different roles to perform for this to be achieved:

• Parents

This is the major stakeholder in the tripartite arrangement. By the tenets of socialization, which is the process by which a child gets him or herself acquainted with the various norms, traditions, and principles on which a society is founded, parents are the first set of people which a child interacts with.

It is believed that a child will take after the parents in both the positive and negative sense.  Consequently, parents have the largest role to play in order to ensure that the reading culture is impressed upon the minds of their children. Provision of adequate instructional material for understanding and assimilation is another key area in which the parents have to focus on in order for the child to grow mentally and intellectually.

•  Teachers

Teachers on the other hand are expected to be embodiment and symbol of knowledge. It is believed teachers have the experience as it relates to the dissemination of knowledge. Based on this belief, teachers must continuously engage in self development and not base their knowledge on outdated sources. They should be knowledge banks and repositories from which their students can always drink and nourish from. Through this, they stand to be examples and role models to the students they teach on the true essence of reading. A child should not ask a teacher a question and the response from the teacher is “I don’t know”. When this happens, the teacher’s weakness has been opened for all to see and in due course, the teacher becomes an object of ridicule in class.

• School

The school authorities also have a role of conducting orientation for students on the need for reading to develop the mental faculty. Many students hold the erroneous belief that reading is meant to pass the exam and not for self development. It is the role of the school authority to correct this assumption. This can be achieved through the following means:

• Construction of well stocked library for the use of students
• Formation of book clubs and knowledge teams to share and disseminate knowledge
• Provision of ICT facilities so students can read beyond the scope of the class
• Liaising with government at all levels on the need for effective funding of the educational sector

Putting all these measures into place will reduce the constant bane of failure among Nigerian students, and ultimately promote a society not filled with criminals and bandits, but with class of intellectuals

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