It is
generally believed that Nigerian students and indeed Nigerians in general have
poor reading habits. Some reading specialists have gone further to postulate
reasons for this ugly trend.
Achebe
(1988), regrets that the level of reading of Nigeria students is nothing to
compare with that of their counterparts in the developed countries like the
Western Germany Austria and Switzerland. He writers:
Books for the young abound, and the young people read
almost to excess. In most cases, a child of 10 in those countries has read more
books than a Nigerian Graduate. Believe me. Sometimes, I was ashamed of myself.
A child of 10 would tell me the names of all the animals, reptiles and birds in
Africa and other parts of the world; the geography of any part of Africa:
rivers, mountains, plateaus, forest, mineral resources; the names of their race
and their languages.
….Bring
any topic and he is at home with, and would, even embarrass you by asking “have
you not read this or that book” (p.2).
Achebe says that in those countries,
nothing is spared in the training of youths. Contrary to the Nigerian
situation, the parents, the church and the government at all levels give
priority to the training of youths.
Adebiyi in Unoh (1990), quoted a
professor of Education who observed that the quality of graduates produced by
universities today is by far inferior to those produced years ago. Adebiyi
insits that one of the factors that one of the factors responsible for the
inferiority is the reading ability of our students which is on a downward
trend.
He
states:
We read mostly to pass examinations or for immediate
economic gains. We have not learnt to read to broaden our horizon, develop the
personality and gain knowledge from all areas of study. Cultivation of good
reading habits starts from childhood at the primary school or latest at the
secondary school. But this is not so in Nigeria. (p.42).
Ekpa in Orisaway, (1992) observes:
Efficient reading is without doubt one of the most
valuable study skills any student can acquire.
Unfortunately, this important aspect of all the
students’ career has been grossly ignored by educational authorities, teachers
and students themselves (p. 111).
Ekpa regrets that the education
system places undue emphasis on writing which in affect makes students to learn
effective writing but lack the skills required for efficient reaching, without
which they cannot understand what they have learnt and written.