Culture of Reading Campaign
RAN distributes books to schools and libraries across Nigeria on an ongoing basis. RAN then selects certain schools to become "model" schools.
So far, twenty pilot schools have been set aside as model schools. The schools are from the six geopolitical zones of thecountry and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Three schools have been earmarked in each geopolitical zone with two school in the FCT.
RAN is now embarking on a school based, school cluster, and participatory capacity building program for teachers and pupils/students in the selected schools and colleges.
Each of the pilot schools is surrounded by a cluster of five schools participating in the capacity building program.
All the teachers in the participating schools are involved in the project. The first core group of teachers drawn from the participating schools will retrain the other teachers in their schools with support from the project consultants.
When RAN completes each cluster, they hope to create new clusters nearby. Classroom and school libraries are set up in the pilot schools. RAN reading and writing clubs are in place in each cluster.
RAN Executive
Dr. Obiajulu Emejulu
RAN President
Directorate of General Studies
Federal University of Owerri
Imo State, Nigeria
omejulus@yahoo.com
Dr. Lulu Uwatt
RAN Vice-President
Department of Curriculum & Teaching
University of Calabar
luluwat2002@yahoo.com
Why Is There A Need For A Culture of Reading?
A culture, broadly speaking, is an integrated pattern of behavior, practices, beliefs, and knowledge. These are the operating rules by which people organize themselves. All members of a culture do not neccessarily react in the same manner, fill the same roles, or comprehend their culture in exactly the same ways, but all participate and thereby create and maintain the basic rules of the culture.
Many of us assume, from being compelled to read textbooks in school, that once an individual passes through a school system, the individual automatically knows how to read and write. Some people also have the belief that once an individual is educated, the individual will automatically know how to read and write.
The above are two false assumptions. First, it is not true that a passage through a school system automatically empowers one with the skill of reading. For instance, even in the best of school systems as we have in Europe, America, Canada, and New Zealand where the school system represents the best on earth, not all who pass through school can read and write.
Secondly, there is abundant evidence to show that one can be soundly educated without necessarily passing through a formal school system. For instance, before the introduction of formal western education in our land, our people were soundly educated. Research evidence in respect of the great Nok culture, the Benin brass industry, the discoveries at Igbo-Ukwu and the Awka foundries to mention just a few, shows that our ancestors were able to develop very sophisticated and delicate technologies, that were comparable to the best there were anywhere in the world at that time.
Although Reading can be facilitated by the school system and by education, it is anchored on special skills and strategies, which cannot be innately acquired. Reading must therefore be taught. Reading itself is not merely extracting meaning from the written text. In a sense, Reading is life in which an individual can vicariously travel
or sojourn with communities that are remote to the individual in time and space.
Reading is language. It is a kind of language in which an individual must make use of his/her background, experiences, attitudes, desires etc in negotiating, constructing and re-constructing meaning from the written text. It is a very active process, in which an individual interacts with the voice or voices in a written text.
Arising from the assumption that Reading is about interaction, we would like to state that the extent of the individual's diverse, robust and vibrant reading ability is dependent on the extent to which the individual is immersed in a literacy environment. Thus the depth and impact of one's literacy empowerment is predicated on the quality and quantity of the literacy environment in which the individual is immersed. Arising from this position is the inescapable fact that the trinity of the home, the society and the school must collaborate in order to ensure that the individual is adequately empowered with Reading as a lifelong learning skill.
Culture of Reading Campaign: 1st Phase-Creating Book Collections in Schools
In 2004-2006 RAN received two 40-foot containers of books from international donors (Fiona Lovatt's Books without Borders in New Zealand and the Global Literacy Project in the USA). RAN then teamed up with the Education Trust Fund (ETF) for logistical assistance. The ETF, a Federal government agency that is empowered to intervene and revive Nigeria’s ailing education, has over the years partnered with RAN in promoting literacy in Nigeria. ETF provided RAN with logistical support to distribute the books to selected schools and colleges in the country.
Eighty nine schools spread all over the of the country were selected to benefit from the book gifts. Each school was supplied with a minimum of five hundred (500) titles. Although 500 titles in developed countries may seem like a drop of water in an ocean, in Nigeria where books have since 1986 almost become an extinct commodity in schools, supplying a school with 500 titles was unprecedented for most recipients.
Culture of Reading Campaign: 2nd Phase-Creating School Libraries
RAN then selects certain schools to become "model" schools. These schools are from the six geopolitical zones of thecountry and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and in them RAN will create model school libraries that create and stimulate a love of reading in students. The teachers and staff of the schools will be trained so that they in turn can propogate methodologies to stimulate reading out into local communities and other schools.
Challenges
Creating a culture of reading will not be easy.
- First, most schools have no classrooms that can be designated as the library. There is generally no safe room in each of them where books can be stocked. There are no reading and writing desks for use by pupils/students. Donated books are often stacked in boxes in the head teachers’ office. As such, accessibility to the books is not easy to come by. Since the books are never displayed, many students never get to know about them.
- Secondly, there is the need to employ trained librarians who can oversee the books provided. Our experience shows that many teachers who receive books from us and take custody of them do not know what to do with them. In some schools, the teachers were not even eager to receive the books because they do not see the need for them. They have never used books in their schools and do not see why they should be bothered with books.
- Third, if book distributions are not sustained over time, our current efforts will fizzle out. As students read through the current five hundred titles we have supplied, they will need other titles to sustain their interests and to keep them reading. We therefore need books to flow into the pilot schools beyond the current ones we have supplied.
- Fourth, there is the need to set up a functional newsletter where pupils and teachers can interact and share experiences. Apart from promoting inter and intra curriculum networking among the teachers and pupils in the participating schools, the newsletter will provide enormous hands-on-activities for both pupils and teachers.
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