Lagos seeks better reading culture, urges pupils to read books 20min daily

The Director-General, Lagos State Office of Education Quality Assurance, (OEQA) Mrs Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, has challenged school pupils to embrace the culture of reading books from their formative years.

She advised them to dedicate at least 20 minutes of their time daily to reading books that would expand their horizons and increase their knowledge about life generally.

Seriki-Ayeni spoke when the Office of Education Quality Assurance and its partner, ‘iRead Network’ took the ‘READ ALOUD LAGOS’ to pupils of Lagos State Model Primary School on Oba Akinjobi Road, GRA, Ikeja.

She explained that the READ Aloud Lagos, was introduced by her in 2020 as part of measures to revive the dwindling culture of reading books, and expose school pupils to some authors worthy of emulation.

The DG who read different books to the pupils, described the gesture of bringing the Read Aloud Lagos to Lagos State Model Primary as the biggest Children’s Day gift that could be given to the pupils.

She also presented different educational books to pupils of the school to encourage continuous reading and also address the challenge of inadequate access to good books for school children, especially pupils at the primary school level.

Seriki-Ayeni urged the pupils to cultivate the habit of reading in order to learn new words and develop their vocabulary usage.

She said, “Reading books will expand your horizons, increase your exposure and make you learn about places you have not been before and even know the culture and way of life of other people.

“Apart from this, through Read Aloud Lagos, you can begin to prepare yourself to participate in our Annual Spelling Bee Competition usually organise by Office of Education Quality Assurance to test the vocabulary knowledge among secondary school students.”

The Director-General revealed that a mobile library was brought to the school to show the pupils that there were multiples ways through which they could read and learn while also having fun.

She said, “We don’t want reading to be focused on English class alone or a language class. As a matter of fact, reading is basic for all subjects, including science subjects and thus explains why teachers and parents are also not exempted from the Read Aloud Lagos initiative. ”

The founder and CEO of iRead Network, Funmi Ilori, who coordinated the students in the area of poems and educative songs, said, “We are is in partnership with OEQA in order to complement the efforts of the state government in reducing illiteracy and encouraging reading among pupils.”

The Head Teacher of school, Mrs. Florence Bamgbade, said the Read Aloud Lagos would stimulate pupils’ interest in reading, in addition to building their vocabularies, speaking and confidence.

One of the pupils of the school, Boluwatife Odusanya, appreciated the state government and iRead Network and the Director-General, OAQA, saying the initiative would  motivate them to be better readers.