READING CULTURE, INDISPENSABLE TO ACADEMIC SUCCESS
The need for a proper reading culture and value reorientation has been over emphasized as the panacea to the low level of academic participation and the near-zero value system amongst the youths,
The Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Dr Temitope Alake, stated this in an interview with Punch Newspaper over the poor performance of students at the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
Dr. Alake who said he knew the workings in primary and secondary schools, colleges of education and the polytechnic, blamed the teachers for helping their wards to write even primary school common entrance examinations.
According to him, “With that, the ability of such students will not be reflected. Some may even manage to get high grades in WAEC and JAMB, but by the time they spend their first and second semester in higher institutions, they have already withdrawn. Some of them passed through miracle centres for their external examinations. Some students come to schools with fake certificates. What I mean is that some of the students come to school with certificates bearing their names and identities, but not their contents.”
“The level of participation of students in academic matters is abysmally low. Unrestricted access to social media is a social hazard in the country. The reading culture is no longer there. To worsen the situation, AI is now developed and it is helping to write the thesis and all that at higher education levels.
“Ask a master’s degree holder to write a letter of application without using AI, then you will see the problem. They would not be able to write appropriately. Technology is good, but when it is not regulated, there is bound to be poor performance in almost all the stages of education,” he said.
“Our value system is also at point zero. The boys are after emergency wealth (yahoo). These are distractions. Nowadays, most of the best awards are won by female students”.
“Nigeria got it wrong the very moment it removed Civics Education from the school curriculum and changed it to Social Studies. Students now see politicians, musicians and all that as models, no longer the patriots. Nigeria needs value reorientation,” he added.
The Rector chided parents for their inability to groom their wards, especially as they no longer spend quality time with their children.
“Parents spend more time with their wards, more than the hours they spend in schools, but most parents do not have time for the students anymore. Parents should be more involved in monitoring their wards’ educational growth,” he said.
While lauding JAMB for consistency in its standard over the years, the don called for the return of reading culture among students to return to the glory days.
“Library and bookshops are collapsing. People prefer the internet to seek information online these days. We should revive reading culture among these students,” he added.
