We established literacy centre to boost reading culture among children, teenagers —Okwilagwe

In this interview with founder of Bookworms Empowerment Foundation (BEF), Professor Andrew Okwilagwe, and the leader, Administrative & Finance at BEF, Princess Adebimpe Kehinde, spoke on the poor reading culture faced by students in Nigeria, how a dedicated literacy centre that the foundation founded will help boost literacy in the country among other issue.

WHAT inspired you to start the literacy centre for children and others here in Ibadan?

Okwilagwe: Oyo State is known to be a highly innovative state. And here, education has long taken root; Awolowo laid the initial foundation for sustainable and free primary education. So, the issue of education is paramount in parents’ minds such that you get to houses or families where you have generations of graduates. That awareness has always been in the old Western state.

Having been in the university system for a long time, research has indicated that Nigerian students have serious reading problems that affect their education, personality development, social interaction, and many other things they do. Most of the problems pupils or students have are related to reading problems. Therefore, people like Professor Iyunloye, Professor Banjo, and others have done research in this area to indicate that Nigerian students at various levels, from primary down to the university level, have reading problems cutting across various aspects: the ability to read, the ability to read fluently, the ability to decode, the ability to understand things they have read, and how their language background affects their reading competency. So, we have a lot of inadequate readers and ineffective readers, and these actually affect their performance not only in the school system but also in their lives. If they can’t read, they can’t interpret; they will not be able to understand and be innovative or creative. And that limits that aspect of their lives because to read means to interpret. To interpret means to understand. If you understand what you’ve read, it simply means that you’ll be able to apply what you’ve read. Since they cannot understand what they’ve read, they can’t read effectively; that affects their performance, and it’s natural for them. So, research has indicated that those who can read proficiently are always very successful in schools and in any career they want to pursue. This means a child who reads effectively could take to any discipline: engineering, social sciences, electronics, just name it. But once a child has reading difficulty, they find it difficult to cope with any aspect of academic life.

Having seen this, having taught reading for over 40 years at the University of Ibadan, especially in communication, language arts and other areas, and having examined studies in this area, including Master’s and PhD projects, what I discovered is that there is a serious issue of reading. The availability of schools may not translate into proficient reading, success or higher academic achievement. There are certain inputs that must be put into these schools that will definitely and positively influence the performance of students. Viewing it from the perspective of reading efficiency, it is clear that low reading habits or poor reading habits bring about low grades or poor performance in examinations.

Take JAMB results, for example, which have seen a decline since 2010. I have always argued that other factors are there apart from the electronic interruptions. It is clear that it is a national disaster. I don’t think anyone took an interest to find out what is happening. We, who are experts in reading, know that the major problem is the reading problems students are facing. Because you cannot say that in the East the teachers are not teaching well or are teaching the same way teachers in the West are doing or not doing. There’s a common national malaise, which is the reading problem students are facing. Except that it is tackled, we will still be in that problem. Issues of electronic malfunctioning could be there, but it is a separate issue entirely. Because of all this, we felt that we had to combat it right from the roots of learning. And this is why we decided to do our research and establish scenarios for prenatal reading, postnatal reading, and preschool reading to enhance the abilities of children. So this is why we established the Children and Adult Literacy Centre in January 2024.

What are the categories of children and adults you attend to here and what kind of special programmes do you have for them?

Okwilagwe: Reading is a very powerful tool for national development, which means reading deficiencies affect the entire system and the nation. It could start right from the early stages of development and down to the last part of human life. For instance, you can start to teach a child to read right from the womb. When a child is growing, they recollect what was read to them in the womb. Post-delivery, you can also decide to read to them and this helps a child to develop the ability to stimulate, to see, to think, to aspire, to touch the book, and listen to the mother. This helps to develop listening ability, vocabulary, relating with the mother and bonding with the mother while they are around the ages of zero to two.

From ages three to five, which is preparing the child towards schooling or say the preschool age, if you read to the child, it helps them to prepare cognitively and practically how to handle things. The child learns from there.

At ages six to twelve, what you develop by reading is vocabulary development, comprehension, intuitive reading, aspirations and joy of reading, while reading between the ages of twelve to eighteen, which you also call the level of maturity, you help them to develop serious literary appreciation, understanding, creative reading and adding meanings to what one has read. That is where the child now interacts with the text and the emotional and the psychological issues raised in such texts they come across. That affects or influences their personalities. At that level, it is more of a bibliotherapy in personality development.

What was the acceptance like in this community and in the society since you started 18 months ago?

Okwilagwe: When a new thing starts, it takes time to get it ingrained into the society. We need to explain over and over again before people are able to understand what you are doing. Once they understand, they buy into it. When we started this, it felt strange. When you talk about prenatal reading, people ask, “What is this? Is it possible?” And there were lots of arguments, and we had people sending messages and calling to ask, “Are you sure you know what you are doing? Is it magic? How will you teach a baby in the womb?” Now, we’re humble enough to explain that it’s not fiction but facts of life — that fetus and their mothers interact, and that science, the Bible and Quran have proven it. So, it’s not a new thing per se, but it’s new here because people are hearing it for the first time, hence the doubts and the fears. As such, explanations have to be given. So, that’s the point of acceptance.

We then engaged the media — social media, radio, and newspaper — to explain this. These things are already being done abroad and this is why you find that children of ages two or three are geniuses or prodigies. It is something that is being done out there in the Western world, but here it’s a new thing. In Nigeria, we are the first to do this, even the first to have a Children’s Literacy Centre specifically devoted to helping children read and not the conventional primary school or kindergarten. So, people are buying into it. It’s a gradual thing. For instance, the Oyo State government has sent medical professionals to us to train here and that’s how the information will begin to grow. And we have invested a heavy amount of money to get this done, and we need to make money because it’s a product that we are selling to the society. Secondly, we need to contribute to the development of the society because it’s not the conventional kind of reading center or literacy centre. We use model gadgets, electronic gadgets and it’s a far-reaching programme we have started here.

What’s the enrolment figure like?

Okwilagwe: It’s well encouraging. We have two sessions — one on Saturdays for those who can take advantage of it, and another during the holidays when the schools are not in session. Remember that children may not be able to cope much, so we break it into three sessions of two hours each; they play around and do other things so that they are not bored, and they need a slow-paced learning. But the children of today are so smart. The aesthetics of the centre and the gadgets available there help to attract and entertain them.

In terms of quality and quantity, how do you measure success or impact in the last 18 months?

Okwilagwe: We don’t actually talk much about quantity, because we take a maximum of 30 pupils for each class. It’s so intensive that pupils follow and demonstrate what they’ve just learned. They clap hands, sing along, and then they’re happy. So, how do you determine quality? It is the value which is apparent. You can see the joy they derive from those activities. If a child can stay happy for an hour without being bored, then they are gaining much.

Since you started and even before, what are the challenges that you have faced, and how have you been able to work around them for the improvement of the pupils who attend the centre?

Kehinde: The first challenge we encountered was financial challenges because we had to bring in pupils. Especially children of those ages — you need to get the place ready to entice them. So, we had that issue. But thank God, the inventor of this idea provided us with some money to start and get all these equipment, gadgets, including toys, that we bought. Finance was our first major challenge. After that, our present challenge is the low turnout of pupils. But we are still expecting many parents who have signalled interest to bring their kids. But the place is running.

The last time I was here, there was a group of government officials that was trained on prenatal reading. What kind of connection exists between this drive and the government vis-a-vis the support you’ve gotten from the government to fund or support this drive?

Kehinde: Where the support of the government had come to play in the workshop we did for the health professionals and that was just for one local government, but we have 33 local government areas in Oyo State. We would have carried out another training for another local government if we had the needed funds or sponsors to help carry that out. The last one was sponsored by JCI. We are hoping the government can support the initiative so that we can continue to take the message to health professionals and pregnant women across all local government areas. This idea is not fiction or a myth. Just like Prof mentioned, research has proven it and you can see that this is real. The government needs to support this idea and its programmes so that many health care professionals are trained and many pregnant women get that knowledge.

Okwilagwe: The issue of government participation and involvement is always a gradual thing. You need to have done something tangible to show that you have a direction—to show that your objectives are clear and achievable, and that the society will benefit tremendously from it. Once you start to do this, the government will see it and I hope the government will appreciate it, and then come to our assistance. Not only the government, but also the NGOs will be interested. They need to know what’s on the ground. It’s a new idea that we have just started, and with time, I think people will get to know it, buy into it, and the government will buy into it, because there is no other government in the federation that is as sensitive to education and interested like the Oyo State government. So, with our performance, they will get to know that we are doing the right thing that is useful to the society.

Still on challenges, what are the cultural or societal issues that you have encountered during the time you’ve introduced this idea?

Okwilagwe: Oyo State is a highly cosmopolitan state. Remember, the Yorubas are highly civilised people. Even in anthropology, it has been said that the Yoruba are the most civilised among people of the black race. So, the issue of education has been there over the years. We know about Awolowo’s activities; we have so many institutions in Ibadan. So, parents are aware of all this. So, we did not encounter any cultural or religious issues. Oyo State is much more above all those petty issues because education is paramount here and it is respected. Therefore, it is an innovation that many people have bought into in this state.

What role do you think literacy plays in helping children adapt to the digital life and the future of work?

Okwilagwe: Cognitively, if children are taught what to do and they can do it, they retain the knowledge to do things and are exposed to positive learning. Children are very fast to adapt and implement what they are taught to do. Don’t take children for granted — they are highly intelligent people. And again, if they take an interest in doing anything, they have fewer worries than adults. Again, the culture does not affect learning in terms of discrimination. Exposure to cognitive, technical and social knowledge is there for every person to get involved in.

What is your long-term vision for this literacy centre in the next 5, 10 or 20 years?

Okwilagwe: My vision, the first I pray to see, is that this idea should be integrated into university programmes like psychology, library studies, communication and language arts and even sociology. This idea can be morphed into these different programmes and it is one of the things I’m looking forward to. I also hope that this place would have developed better than this. We presently have a structure at Arulogun area with about 18 rooms that we are currently developing as a literacy centre. If we have about N10 million, we would have been able to complete it. That kind of structure will aid the participation of more people. As such, during the holidays, children would have a place to enjoy themselves.

You’ve appraised the position of the state government regarding education and literacy. What kind of approach should the public, the government and the society have towards literacy?

Okwilagwe: Without literacy, there’s no civilisation, effective thinking, creativity or innovation. Without literacy, you cannot interact with people. Illiteracy inhibits human development while literacy enhances and fosters human development such that it gives room for people to think creatively and it liberates the mind. In modern times, literacy is the tool required for development.

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