World Book Day: UNICEF, Niger State call for promotion of reading culture among Nigerians

The United Nations Children’s Education Funds (UNICEF) in collaboration with Niger State Ministry of Education on Thursday called for the promotion of reading culture among Nigerians.

They made the call in an event organised by UNICEF and Niger State Ministry of Education for students and education secretaries to commemorate World Book Day and the dissemination of a report on assessment of textbook availability in schools in Nigeria.

World Book and Copyright Day is an annual event marked in over 100 countries globally to promote reading, publishing and even copyright.

In her address, the state Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Hannatu Jibrin Salihu, said the event was apt as there was need to establish a formidable and sustainable reading culture amongst the young ones.

She said the Federal Government’s intervention programme in the provision of books was to attain the ratio of one textbook to one pupil in the public primary schools and improve the reading culture in junior secondary schools.

Salihu, however, pointed out that the event was aimed at promoting reading for an improved outcome for children and called on publishers to ensure that books were gender-sensitive and negatively reinforce stereotypes that affect transition.

She said the state government intervention in the educational sector was to improve quality education and called on parents and guardians to encourage younger ones to imbibe the reading culture to complement government efforts.

In his remarks, Education Officer, UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, Mr Francis Elisha said the event was to encourage children to imbibe reading culture and adults to make provision of reading materials for them.

He called on participants at the event to go back to ensure that books were made available at school and family levels as well as remind themselves of their responsibility to revive reading culture in society.

Francis called on educational secretaries of the various local government areas to reach out to all agencies that would support donations of books in schools.

In his remarks, the State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani-Bello, said the event was a re-awaken call to every individual to imbibe the culture of reading.

The governor who was represented by the  Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Malam Mamman Musa said the state government had made tremendous efforts through the renovation of schools to make the reading environment conducive.

Also, the  Chairman,  Niger State Universal Basic Education (NSUBEB), Dr Yisa Adamu advised students to read more books in order to become versatile and articulated and called on the general public to promote reading culture among Nigerians.

Some of the recommendations of the event were that everyone should ensure they read one book in a month, government should make provisions for books and parents should encourage their children to cultivate a reading culture.

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