Learning: Organisation harps on promoting reading culture among children

Director of Afrigrowth Foundation, a non-governmental Organisation (NGO), Mrs. Oly Sanni, has stressed the need to teach children to imbibe reading culture to promote learning.

Sanni gave the advice in Bwari, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of activities to mark the 2014 reading competition organised by the Foundation.

She said that teaching children to imbibe reading culture early would help to improve their ability to learn fast within and outside the classroom environment.

“We have established 10 libraries in LEA primary schools in Bwari to afford the pupils the opportunity to read and gain more experience from use of library.

“We have also organised reading competition for them to tell us about the books they have read to know if they really used the library.

“We asked them questions about the books they claimed they had read and they in turn gave a summary to prove that they had read them.

“The fact is that as long as you can read, you are literate and when you can read early enough, you will automatically learn easily how to write.

“By teaching children to read their books you are moulding their character positively towards acquiring relevant skills and experiences to be self- reliant in life,” she said.

Sani said that LEA Model Phase three, LEA Gbazango, LEA Dawaki, LEA Alugu-Lungu and LEA Bhazyih as primary schools that contested in the reading competition.

She explained that the organisation sees competition as a means of supporting and promoting reading culture in the community.

According to her, if a child cannot read at the age of 10, it will be difficult for such a child to retain what that child will learn in future.

“It is going to be cumbersome for any child who is not used to reading to become literate; that is why it is necessary to catch them young,” she said. (NAN)