The reading culture of Nigerians is taking another dimension which may not be leading to a good end. A practice which was common among Nigerian students, youths and even adults in the past is gradually being eroded.
Many Nigerians do not read for pleasure or for what they need to learn but for what they want to achieve, and after then the reading stops. I strongly believe this is the reason Nigeria’s readership is very low amongst her peers in the world. Reading is said to have different impacts in the life of the reader depending on what he or she reads.
Reading can be categorised into various types such as achievement, therapeutic, curative, informative, pleasure, etc. But among these categories of reading, achievement reading, which is gradually eroding other kinds of reading today and which is also carried out by Nigerians on a daily basis, most especially in our higher institutions of learning, is going to be my focus in this piece.
Reading among students in our higher institutions today has taken a narrow dimension which tends to focus on achievement alone. Students in our campuses today find it very difficult to read when it has nothing to do with assignment, presentation of term or seminar papers, report on a particular trip as required by some courses, and examination periods, especially when the timetable is not out. Thus, some lecturers who understand this pattern employed by students but still want to instil reading culture in the students make use of discussion method during classes. Some others also make use of question and answer method to stir up students’ seriousness. This is why sometimes students make it a point of duty to read and study a particular course thoroughly before going in for such classes, thereby finding reading interesting. But it is appalling that not all lecturers apply these methods.
Students have streamlined their minds towards a particular goal, GRADES, which is the supplier of their zeal and also their morale-booster in terms of marrying their books which is supposed to be a normal routine. Thus, anything outside of textbooks and notebooks should be kept at bay. It is not a bad idea to aim for good grades, but students should also know that understanding the course that these grades will be made from is paramount in defending it. It is a shame for a student to have an “A” in a particular course which he or she cannot define or tell its basics.
Students become so tied to achieving their grades at the expense of understanding their course of study, which is the core concern of employers and the demand of the society at large. Thus, it is no wonder that a graduate with an upper grade certificate can fail a test which is easily passed by his/her counterpart with a lower or third-class grade, as the case may be. So many students get stuck in this achieving syndrome that they find it difficult to educate their younger ones or take tutorials on a course they had previously written and in which they had an “A” grade. This is so because whatever they read during that semester or level was strictly done to pass the examination, and since it has been achieved, everything about that course should be forgotten. The problem doesn’t end with the tutorials alone; it also boils down to productivity in places of work and the larger society. These days employers find it difficult to understand why people with good certificates fail to live up to their responsibilities and tasks. This is not due to the fact that they wanted to fail but the fact that they had not given themselves to studying other materials that were supposed to equip them for the unexpected tasks given them. Employers on their part should also help with the necessary tools and equipment that are needed to carry out the tasks.
Our students, both graduates and undergraduates, find it difficult to educate people on anything outside their course of study. This is true because they have shut their minds against materials that cannot add any benefit to their grades at that point in time. Truth is: students who do not read other materials, either for pleasure or most importantly information, may find it difficult to tackle the methods of various employers of labour and the challenges in life when they eventually join the search for jobs. Employers of labour expect graduates to be versatile in almost all areas of knowledge. That is why you can find a graduate of engineering working as a banker, and those of banking and finance working as journalists, and even library science graduates working as administrative and personnel managers.
Students also have the problem of what to read in a given period. You will be surprised to find a student reading materials which are made for pleasure at the expense of his or her text/notebooks. This is so because most of them found themselves in departments and courses of study which they never bargained for but because of parental or peer influence. Thus, reading materials pertinent to that course of study, which are supposed to be their primary aim of being in the school, become a problem because they do not find interest in them at all.
It is a shame to see graduates of our universities who, by virtue studies, cannot portray the quality of excellence on the challenge set before them. Therefore, in order to abate this situation, our students need to revive their reading habit not only for the sake of achieving good grades or excellent results but also to impact the life of those that desire to learn from them, thereby making themselves contributors in their places of work in the near future and to the general needs of the society.
Written by: Emomiredu,
Emomiredu is the librarian,
Business Day Media Limited.
