Education Minister demands stakeholders’ support to reading campaign

The Supervising Minister of Education, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike has called on stakeholders in the education sector to support the Federal Ministry of Education’s programmes and activities towards promoting the entrenchment of reading habits among Nigerians.

The Minister made the call in his keynote address at the ‘FME/MDGs Awareness Campaign on Reading’ held at the Government College, Keffi, Nassarawa State recently with the theme: ‘Reaching the Grassroots for Mobilization and Promotion of Sustainable Reading Culture in Nigeria.’

The Minister, who was represented by the Deputy Director of Library and Informatics in the Ministry, Irene Mbanefo said that reading is an imperative for personal development and productivity, adding that it enhances the intellectual development and other potentials of humans in the educational process. He also indicated that the rigour and stress involved in reading enables people to develop such virtues as discipline, hard work, dedication and diligence; explaining that their presence there was to enable them discuss on promoting the cause of reading.

 “I charge everybody present to contribute to the promotion of literacy and a culture of reading in our nation. Literacy and reading frees the mind from bigotry, unites like minds and promotes peace and respect for opposing views. Students and pupils should commit themselves to reading regularly as reading is the ladder to any height which any human aspires to get in life,” he stated..

 In a goodwill message delivered at the occasion, the former Minister of State for Education, who is the immediate past president of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Jerry Agada commended the Ministry for sustaining the tempo of the “Read Campaign”.

He said that there is no better way through which one can realize full potentials than the reading of good books. He enjoined political leaders, traditional rulers and parents to endeavour to encourage students and pupils to develop good reading habit.

Also speaking at the event, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals (SSAP-MDGs), Precious Gbeneol represented by Ify Nnamchi-Ukaegbu inferred that her office’s intervention in the “Read Campaign” has been guided by the MDG goals 2 and 3 – achieving universal basic education and promoting gender equality and women empowerment.  

Precious Gbeneol commended the efforts of the Ministry, saying that the ‘Read Campaign’ would fast-track the achievement of the education-related MDGs 2 and 3 in Nigeria. She added that there is need for parents, teachers and other stakeholders to teach children how to develop the effective study habits and reading culture which would help them to achieve academic success. 

She further noted that Nigeria has made significant progress in the drive to attain the education related MDGs 2 and 3 less than 700 days to the targeted 2015 date. She expressed the urgent need to refocus and scale-up the interventions, in order to create a Nigeria that reads and promotes knowledge acquisition through access to edifying written works.

In his opening remarks, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education, MacJohn Nwaobiala represented by the Deputy Director of Informatics in the Ministry, Christiana Ogbede informed that the ‘Read Campaign’ is one of the multifarious approaches employed by the Ministry to halt the falling standard of education in the country. He also implored all participants to make the best of the event and take the message to the grassroots, assuring that the Ministry will continue to seek ways and means to restore the standard of education.