ENHANSING THE CULTURE OF READING:
A Call for Primary School library reading hours
Madame Chairman, Your excellences’ the British High Commissioner ; the Ghanaian Ambassador, Heads and functionaries of all our invited missions distinguished Ladies and gentlemen; it is quite refreshing meeting all of you together under one roof for the very first time. It gives me the greatest pleasure to welcome you all on behalf of the President and all volunteers of PEN Sierra Leone a chapter of the International PEN and also on behalf of our current partners.
We have met severally over time different interventions with reading and writing programmes in the country; that notwithstanding the urgency of this moment cannot be overemphasized.
Even though PEN has not met with some of you in the recent past, we continue to receive with satisfaction the progress you are making in this our shared mandate of helping with the development of Education in the world and especially in our Beloved Sierra Leone.
For The Canadian Organization for Development through Education [CODE] we are impressed with the work you are doing especially in preparing young ladies as teachers in the Transforming Girls Education Project.
We still remember working with the World Bank staging the first ever Early Grade reading competition project in this country in November /December 2017. That was an eye opener and we are hoping it would happen again soon.
PEN International is our foremost partner and through them we have continued with our annual programmatic engagement with schools in their communities. Our on-going engagement is with the Moomin story project and advocacy on library reading hours in our Primary school system. Through this project PEN Sierra Leone was among five other countries in the world encouraged to translate the story ‘The invisible child’ into one of our indigenous languages currently used in schools.[The lingua franca Krio was used] The essence of this engagement was to sensitize the community on the effect of social sidelining of the girl child and so effect a change in mindset. The communities in which the participating schools were located were actively involved in the engagement.
This year we have just established relationship with Book Aid International in the African Story Box Project which is supporting primary schools in the Western Urban, Western Rural and the Tonkolili Districts supplying books to promote and enhance the culture of reading in these schools.
This meeting also serves as an inauguration of that partnership as the banners and other mounted announcements proclaim. Eighteen Primary schools in the Western rural, Western Urban and Tokolili Districts will today symbolically receive an African story box each containing one hundred copies of locally produced supplementary readers meant for Primary Schools written and illustrated by Sierra Leonean illustrators and writers. Also the box contains a wide variety of supplementary readers numbering a hundred, sourced by BAI [Book Aid International] in the United Kingdom. We are enthused to be working with Book Aid International hoping also that this partnership will grow and expand to the benefit of our shared goal – that of enhancing reading in our Primary schools.
All of these efforts are connected directly with the enhancement of reading and writing as a step up effort in improving education in our Primary and Junior Primary schools and by extension education in the whole country.
PEN Sierra Leone is aware of the effort of other organizations that are partnering with the MBSSE [Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education] to help us realize what would ultimately improve the quality of education in Sierra Leone.
We have called you all here together because we have something to share something that might further enhance our general effort in addressing the development in education in this country.
Our Interventions and Findings
In its twenty years of existence, PEN Sierra Leone has been involved with many schools in all regions in the country including in very hard – to – reach areas. Our business? to encourage reading and writing in our schools through a variety of platforms.
Our findings collected over the years indicate that even though reading may be taught in all subjects, it being the medium of exchange in education, it is not professionally handled at the early grade level.
There is this erroneous view that anybody can teach reading to minors, that there is no special skill needed to teach little children.
The following are the results in such situations in our schools.
- Children cannot read effectively linking sounds or even understanding meaning of words and their collocation.
- They have difficulties in linking reading with writing activities
- In writing creative essay competitions, students often fail to organize their essay well.
- They Lack the ability to express ideas coherently.
- There is weakness in the knowledge and use of the grammar of the language
- Vocabulary is limited and most times used inappropriately.
- Both reading and writing are affected
- A huge number of students responding to our reading assignments and exercises often fail to read passages carefully and intelligibly enough to be able to extract the facts required as answers to questions. Some candidates merely copy sentences from a given passage irrespective of whether they are fit answers or not.
- There is a seeming disinterest in reading.
For the last point stated, we are aware of the challenges of choice facing children, namely the easy access to android phones and all it promises; cup-football, all types of music and movies at their fingertips peer pressure and some toxic social practices.
We have collaborated with both our local and international partners in many specific and varied projects during the period of empirical interventions to improve the reading capacity of pupils in schools in Sierra Leone.
The feedback from numerous beneficiaries including teachers, pupils and community elders involved in the various project initiatives undertaken over the years since 2005 when PEN school club community outreach programme was established especially in secondary schools speaks volumes. At the top of these are the socio-economic challenges being root causes of low level of reading and comprehension and retention of pupils in school especially the girl child.
Our concern is and has always been the low level of reading and comprehension which inadvertently affects performance across our school system.
The culminating effects of these challenges seem to be overburdened on especially Junior Secondary Schools teachers in our project sites.
It is also observed, at the JSS level that teachers of English have had to un – teach various mis – teachings acquired in the primary years. This has accentuated the need to engage teachers of English at that foundational level equipping them with the relevant skills for training them.
We have had a common request from the school club facilitators in all fifty member schools in the various regions, encouraging PEN to engage and offer more reading skills to early grade reading institutions so that they are strong enough and ready to transit learners to face the expected high level of performance in secondary school education.
Madame Chairman, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen this is what prompted us to undertake a random assessment of the early grade teaching and learning methods and facilities in a number of schools in the Western Urban and Western Rural areas in Freetown, where by comparison there are fewer challenges to learning.
This report therefore intends to share in part, the findings of a baseline reference that seeks to determine the level of reading facilities available in primary school as well as the factors affecting the ability of pupils to read and comprehend generally.
Thirty (30) Primary schools were selected in the Western Urban Freetown and the Western Rural District in the conduction of this work. The Head Teachers of the selected schools were the targets for responding to the questionnaires sent out to the schools.
Summary Findings of the Situational Analysis report
Since our concern is the low level of reading and comprehension across our school system, the hypothetical question is, if proposing a closer engagement with reading as a subject in the school curriculum could enhance the culture of reading in order to improve the general outcome of education.
The objectives of these concerns were to explore the opportunities available in schools for improving and enhancing early grade reading.
Responding to the questionnaire, all respondents indicated that teachers are available for teaching reading in schools. However trained and qualified personnel are not enough.
The survey findings show no proper library system in the selected schools. Some indicated book – shelves or closed book-boxes as the only means pupils have to access to books especially supplementary readers.
Some of these schools, in fact consider other materials outside the prescribed reading list as a waste of time simply because all teaching is geared towards passing the NPSE examinations using the drill method. Because of this approach the children’s knowledge is limited, their vocabulary badly dented.
‘Responding to the amount of time allotted to reading in school, the survey shows that many of these schools hold reading classes on two separate 30 minute periods a week.
On testing methodology for proficiency in reading, many use reading and comprehension tests and exams.
Another finding indicated difficulty in the identification of letters and production of sounds. Pronunciation is also a common challenge encountered by early grade readers.
All agree that having reading as a subject and as a skill engagement on the time table is necessary. This we know will make sense only with a complementary training of adequate staff to teach it.
All respondents agreed that in order to enhance reading as a subject in schools, the following must be available
- Trained teachers– librarians or Library Assistants in schools
- Provision of a library –corner at least in schools
- Providing a wider variety of charts
- Provide a wide range and variety of supplementary reading materials in schools.
- Emphasizing the importance of supplementary reading materials.
The essence of this study is to examine the why and how to enhance a culture of reading in our schools and our homes and to promote early grade reading and comprehension by providing the use of well-structured and supervised library hours in our primary school system in the country through library assistance, training interventions and the provision of supplementary reading materials.
Contextual Background of the Report
The need for the access to reading and writing programme itself which started in 2005 is sometimes seen as resulting from the effects of the eleven year civil war between 1991 – 2002 which caused untold devastation in our country bringing all socio – economic activities virtually to a standstill. Education was among the worst hit with schools and libraries closed or burnt down and school activities disrupted in some parts of the country for several years.
Reading and writing programmes were seriously undermined resulting in the stifling of the culture of reading and writing for pleasure and enlightenment. The problem was compounded by the fact that the young population turned away from books to video and satellite TV watching movies and satellite football tournaments from the continent and around the world. This is still hugely popular.
Other activities like presentation and criticism of literary works and debating also suffered in many schools. These are all activities which in times of peace help broaden the horizon of children and develop their critical thinking faculties and therefore reflect on their general performance, outlook in life, self-confidence, communication skills and leadership roles in society.
We are planning to use this data for advocacy purposes to call for library hours to be included in the school curriculum.
Much research had been undertaken in the area of promoting the early grade reading skills by various organizations in the literary sector. And there are success stories in many of the reading initiatives as indicated in literature reports. However while there are good efforts by various stakeholders, the problems of low reading level still lingers around in the country and is popping its head in the media.
Judging from a number of key policy pronouncements, it is clear that the intentions of Government are quite supportive and optimistic regarding what could be done to ensure that all citizens have access to educational opportunities and thereby create a literate population. These policies or pronouncements which are common in the agenda of the past and current governments, following the war years, all relate to both national and international global development policies/plans: Providing improved social services in Education and Health.
Since 2018, the current government policies continue to build on human resource development through the national free and quality education programmes. This has seen a surge in school enrollment in especially primary schools over the past few years, not forgetting to mention an appreciation in the number of girls now in the school system.
Therefore if quality education is to be guaranteed in the country, then the need to prompt up strategies that could bring out the positive outcomes of education.
SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
The suggested solutions to these have been overemphasized – have libraries in or around schools, encourage reading, and so on but it is also widely believed that there should be an increase in the provision of basic teaching and learning materials in schools and an effort in equipping and strengthening the basic human resource in the teaching field – teachers. Improve their wellbeing by increasing their visibility as role models in the lives of the students. These also are major issues that need urgent attention.
.We also need to sensitize parents and community elders on the importance of encouraging children to read at home. The first teachers in a child’s life used to be their parents and grandparents. Things have changed even grandmothers are becoming younger with the years this notwithstanding we should still remember that this initial training contact is a responsibility of the home.
Our research and intervention in the area of culture and literary activities in a cross section of schools in the regions across the country over the years indicate that a child who can read and write, learns more and is more likely to stay in school. As a result, that child has a greater ability to contribute to economic prosperity. As the students/pupils master the mechanics of reading, instruction expands to address reading and writing for critical thinking and the use of knowledge gained to solve real life problems thus, the need for the linkage between culture and practical development in societies like Sierra Leone.
THE CALL FOR ACTION
Lady Chairman, your Excellencies, Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, this is the reality of the moment. We cannot avoid the writing on the wall that if this is not addressed now, all the efforts by partners and government over the years would have been a willful waste. Teaching should be taken as a vocation and treated professionally.
Reading is the invisible ladder on which men step into the world of ideas, information and life – changing experiences and lessons.
This call is going out to all who believe in the true power of education, all of us seated here who have contributed so much in the past and want to take this little step of faith and action which will address whatever was not given due attention or which with time has suffered a sea-change.
The time for real productive action is now. For far too long we have hung on to dreams of returning to the successes of yester years on vehicles that are centuries out dated.
The Athens of West Africa is about the role of Fourah Bay College [FBC] as an institution of higher learning in both its African and international context through periods of missionary education 1816 – 1876; coronial education: 1876 – 1938 and the development of education from 1938 – 200.
Yes the vision still lingers, yes we can hang on to what has served us well but this is 2023 with its prodigious challenges of place, of time and an ever changing situation locally and internationally.
Share your experiences and views with us channel the best practices you know will lead us to a takeoff point. Forward them to us, we offer ourselves as the conduit to bring us together again soonest in our working clothes. Together we shall engage the MBSSE with workable solutions and together from each of us according to our ability for all of us according to our needs.
Lady Chairman distinguished ladies and gentlemen this may be our last opportunity, no one would want to blow it – especially not us.
Thanks for your attention.
Nathaniel Adekunle Rex Pearce
Secretary General PEN Sierra Leone
6th October 2022
