Educational Issues
The Reading Culture in Higher Institutions -By Abdulrasheed Akere Abdulkareem
…being a higher institution student is enough to denounce to you that you are now mature enough to decern what you want; either first-class or certificate of attendance, and that is symmetrical to your reading habits because as you lay your bed you lie on it. No genius doesn’t read, it’s just distinct to one another in manner, note that readers are leaders!
Reading is a process of interpreting written language to obtain information or knowledge, but there’s more to reading than this literary, precise definition in higher institutions. Reading requires the adequate dedication of time, energy, focus, and determination as well as sleepless nights to comprehend and pass a particular course. The first piece of advice or message to a newly admitted student ought to be that reading in their previous schools is always different from reading in higher institutions.
In higher institutions, especially universities, you have to build yourself to read with full concentration and without any distraction. Here, it’s not to read to pass only, but also to have vivid knowledge of each content contained in all registered courses so as to overcome easily future challenges if at all any arise.
Dear freshmen around the campus, be in awareness that some students fail because they only read to pass, they never would not read to understand the contents, it’s not always necessary that you must swot everything on the head without core understanding, and this is because it is not mandatory to have only A’s in all subjects before one can graduate from a school. So far you are now in higher institutions you need, regardless, to build a good Grade Point (GP) which is proportional to your grade in each course you are offering.
I was sometime instructed by a lecturer about the fundamentals of getting good grades and according to the him, he said, “Always work towards a first-class result, if possible you may have it or not then fall into upper second-class honor, but if second-class should be your first target, then chances tha you may end up having third-class or certificate of attendance (pass result) are already along the path.
As an ambitious student, don’t be dissuaded by those that say “first-class is by grace”. Remember instead, always, the adage that says “Heaven helps only those who help themselves”. This is why it’s crucial for one to start building and working on the GP from the virgin first year as the second year just may not help again because it’s too late, and likewise, the third year too.
In higher institutions, it’s not reading if you always only read to pass rather than having the necessary vast understanding, it’s not reading if you can’t read for many hours and forget taking a meal, it’s not reading if it’s always read to pass and not to make an impact, it’s not reading if you can’t read to the extent that you will be sure to pass, it’s not reading if you do sleep at all nights, and it’s not reading if you are found of pressing phone superfluously when reading.
Moreso, it’s not reading if your parents are not proud of your result, it’s not reading if it’s your friends that always force you to read, it’s not reading if you always read a day to the examination and it’s not reading if you are allergic to covering the course outline. On the contrary, you will even be happy, have the last laugh if you have the a better result, just like a lion that eventually catches a prey, if you read that way you know you always should.
Although, too much of everything is abuse, but there’s just no too much reading, for zealotic students, as the more you read the more you will gain more knowledge. Some lecturers are found of setting applied questions which thorough reading is the only the membrane that can reveal the secret of the applied facts.
Even if you were not taught everything in class, your burden is to go on further research because the institution is not a playground. Don’t be deterred from pursuing your objectives by the utterance from that empty barrier that tells you “you don’t need to read from the front page to final page before you can pass”.
In conclusion, being a higher institution student is enough to denounce to you that you are now mature enough to decern what you want; either first-class or certificate of attendance, and that is symmetrical to your reading habits because as you lay your bed you lie on it. No genius doesn’t read, it’s just distinct to one another in manner, note that readers are leaders!
Abdulrasheed Akere Abdulkareem, a 200 level Education Biology student at UDUS
