Education

NIE: Inculcating a reading culture in schools

By DOREEN NAWA
HAVE you ever asked your child to circle in the newspaper the letters that make up the alphabet?
What about asking your child to identify nouns, pronouns, verbs, proverbs or adjectives in the newspaper?
Maybe you have gone to the sports page of the newspaper and asked your child to identify in the football league table Odd numbers, Prime number or the difference between the top team and the one at the bottom of the table.  
One of the worrisome challenges in the Zambian education system is the poor reading culture in most schools.
This problem is compounded mainly by the shortage of reading and learning materials in schools.
The lack of access to reading and learning materials has largely contributed to the poor reading culture and poor performance of the school going children.
In an effort to bridge the gap, the Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM) recently launched the Newspaper In Education (NIE) project in Lusaka.
The NIE project is a ZAMCOM initiative with the assistance from the American International Health (AIHA), the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications with support from USAID.
The main objective of the Newspaper In Education is to promote the reading culture of pupils in schools countrywide.
Generally, the contents of the NIE will range from environment, gender to education.
Following a partnership ZAMCOM entered into with USAID, and other co-operating partners like Zambia Daily Mail, the NIE project will provide access to quality reading relevant to the primary and basic school curriculum.
The NIE project will provide inexpensive, relevant teaching materials and ready-to-use lesson plans to Zambian schools.
At the launch, Minister of Education John Phiri said the NIE project will not only improve the reading culture among pupils but also alleviate the shortage of teaching and learning materials in schools.
“We welcome this gesture because we realise such help will assist restocking the much needed reading materials in our schools,” Dr Phiri said.
At the same function, USAID Education team leader Wick Powers said the USAID supported NIE programme will encourage more Zambian school children to read.
“Reading is the single most critical foundational skill in early education and is the basis for future learning,” Mr Powers said.
With the NIE in every school at no cost at all, it is hoped that the passion for reading will become a cultural habit for students in Zambia.
Marble Sakuwaha, a teacher at one of Government schools in Lusaka says most private schools produce quality pupils because of the reading culture they have cultivated among the students.
She says students in most Government schools lack reading and learning materials, which makes the reading culture non-existence.
“Reading is not merely a hobby, it is a culture. This culture is usually cultivated in the early stages of a child’s life. For private schools, you will find that their pupils perform better than ours because of their capacity to introduce the students early to reading. Our colleagues have enough reading materials and I believe the NIE will complement on the lack of reading material mostly in government schools,” she said.
Reading is a very important language skill because of the benefits an individual or community derives.
The availability of the NIE in every school where people can read is also a major factor that will lead students in the country become avid readers.
It is undisputable that good reading skills lead students to become successful learners.
Most of the time, a student learns from written language learning materials, such as textbooks, handouts, posters and other publications like newspapers and magazines.
Reading also encourages people to become successful lifelong learners, as books can be enjoyed throughout a lifetime.
“The NIE is a good initiative because it will provide a platform for them to read. Reading can stimulate someone to be creative and innovative. Innovation results from the combination of ideas and concepts. The more we read, the more ideas and concepts come to mind. Take Japan as an example: the high level of reading in Japan has made it one of the most innovative nations,” according to Henry Muntanga, a former head teacher at Muyoma Basic school in Lusaka.
Mr Muntanga suggests that policy makers should seriously promote reading in the country by redesigning the literacy education curriculum so that it stipulates reading books in classrooms is compulsory.
“This means schools have to be equipped and enriched with a variety of reading materials. Students should be allowed to read all books, both fiction and non-fiction, based on their age and reading skills,” says Mr Muntanga.
A reading culture is an important ingredient for any society to become developed.
Although it is a challenging journey, with willingness and commitment a sustained reading culture can definitely be achieved.
When there were no televisions or computers, reading was a primary leisure activity.
People would spend hours reading books and travel to lands far away-in their minds.
However, with modern technology, most people have lost their skill and passion to read and this has also been transferred to students.
It has however been observed that children and teenagers who love reading have comparatively higher degree of intelligence.
They are more creative and do better in school and college. It is recommended that parents inculcate the importance of reading in their children in the early years.
Reading is said to significantly help in developing vocabulary, and doing it aloud helps to build a strong emotional bond between parents and children.
The children who start reading at an early age seem to have good language skills, and they grasp the variances in phonics much better.
Reading helps in mental development and is known to stimulate the muscles of the eyes.
Reading is an activity that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader.
It is an indulgence that enhances the knowledge acquired, consistently. The habit of reading also helps readers to decipher new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations.
Once in cooperated in the students’ life and with the NIE readily available, the habit of reading can become a healthy addiction to students.
So the next time you buy the Zambia Daily Mail, know that it can be used to teach gramma, civic, geography, mathematics, science, history and many other subjects.