by Taye Babaleye, Nigeria, October 1997
THEME = EDUCATION
8 September was World Literacy Day. In Nigeria, nothing significant was done to commemorate the occasion, and it was not surprising because since the early 1980s, the standard of education has been on a downward trend. Lectures have been continually interrupted, as universities close their doors because of student unrest; teachers' poor pay; non-academic staff strikes; poor funding; non-availability of books, laboratory equipment and other teaching aids. Nigeria's universities now turn out half- trained graduates. Many students in computer science can't get even eight hours per week practical work on a computer. Mechanical engineering students can hardly tell the difference between the bonnet of a car and the boot!
In Nigeria's High Schools, the level of grammar is appalling. Government primary schools, especially those in rural areas, are in a dilapidated condition. Teachers's salaries remain unpaid so they "moonlight", by selling second-hand clothes or engage in farming to keep body and soul together.
When sitting government examinations, cheating is the "done thing". The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is jointly owned by the Education authorities in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and The Gambia, and is responsible for setting the school-leaving examinations in that part of West Africa. Every year, the Council has to cancel many candidates' examination papers because of examination malpractice. Weak students hire brighter students to sit the exams for them - at an agreed fee, of course. The situation gets even more serious when it comes to sitting university entrance examinations. Figures just released for this year's university entrance examinations, show that 46% of the 376,000 candidates who sat the Joint Universities Admissions and Matriculation Examinations, were disqualified because of examination malpractice.
Today, in spite of the 20 million students at all levels throughout Nigeria, more and more people are becoming illiterate. Ironically, Nigeria has the largest number of universities in Africa (36). There are also 50 polytechnic colleges. Secondary schools number more than 5,500 and primary schools more than 45,000. These figures do not include the private schools and colleges springing up almost daily.
From primary school right up to university, students no longer have the habit of reading for pleasure. What reading they do, is geared to passing examinations, and nothing else.
Recently, the Heinrich Bolls Foundation, a German non- governmental organisation, organised a three-day Workshop on "Promoting the habit of reading in Nigeria". The Workshop was held at the University of Ibadan, and was a follow-up to a similar Workshop held last April, at the British Council offices in Kaduna, North Central Nigeria.
The Workshop aimed at working out how to encourage Nigerians to embrace the habit of reading, and thus promote literacy. It also aimed at stimulating the government to formulate effective policies for promoting literacy, as an integral part of national development. Participants' main concern, was how to develop sustainable campaign strategies, towards reducing illiteracy everywhere.
A look was taken at the "Mali experience". A project undertaken by that country's Education Ministry and the Media, to promote the habit of reading, successfully reduced illiteracy from a staggering 80% to about 55% within a decade. How did the project work? Mini-libraries were established at a regional level throughout the country, and books were loaned to High School students who would read the stories for themselves, and then narrate them over national radio. The programme became so popular, that many parents began to look forward to hearing their children's voices on the radio. The initiative later developed so to embrace adult education programmes. Illiterate parents then received lessons in reading and writing.
The Heinrich Bolls Foundation Workshop attracted media executives, academicians, book publishers, students, members of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, and the Association of Nigerian Authors.
Professor Bola Odejide of the Department of Communication and Language Arts of the University of Ibadan, chaired the technical session together with Dr. Fani Olugbile, a novelist and psychiatrist, who spoke on the Habit of Reading. They did this from the perspective of a teacher (Dr Odejide) and a writer (Dr Olugbile).
The Workshop recognised the vital roles that teachers can play in improving the habit of reading. The Nigerian Union of Teachers was given the responsibility of assisting in the campaign for promoting the habit of reading at a grassroots level. The Union was also mandated to embark on a "catch them young" programme, so as to develop pleasure-reading schemes for pupils right from primary school level. The Nigerian Publishers Association will assist in the programme, by providing books.
The whole project is surely a worthwhile effort in promoting literacy throughout Nigeria.
END