Functional literacy empowers people with the knowledge and skills required for tackling the causes and effects of poverty such as unemployment, environmental degradation, hunger and disease.

English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) once asserted that ‘reading maketh a full man, speaking...a ready man, and writing maketh him exact.’ Common sense dictates that you cannot give what you don’t have, if we want to groom a generation of readers, teachers must be role models to their students.

The education system must also focus on promoting critical thinking among learners other than reading for the sake of passing exams! Currently, we are largely made to read or cram only materials necessary to pass exams…in the end we get graduates who know too much useless theory but cannot apply it in the world of work.

If we are to develop and sustain a reading culture in our society, there must be a strong collaboration and partnership amongst teachers, parents, private sector, government and civil society organisations. To address this question, I have tried to apportion responsibilities among the various stakeholders:

Government institutions ought to emphasise the need for developing the culture of reading as early as possible. For example, there should be a reading hour/library hour on the school timetable. This includes visiting the library and learners choosing what they want to read. For schools that do not have libraries, this activity can be carried out in classrooms. Also, the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders need to encourage local associations, for example for teachers, writers and librarians, such associations play a leading role towards strengthening a reading culture in schools. This will not only improve on our quality of education, but will also create a generation of Rwandans who are creative thinkers.

Teachers have a pivotal role in helping children develop and maintain a positive attitude towards learning and literacy. Motivated readers read more, use more complex cognitive strategies, and thus become better readers. To motivate children to read, classroom teachers should demonstrate a passion for reading and act as model readers for their students.

Teachers should know how children perceive the value of reading, and aim to enhance the perceived value by linking reading with the children’s own interests and goals. Also, teachers should know how children perceive their own ability as readers and support them in developing a positive self-image by having them work with texts that are at their current reading level and by providing them with enough time to complete their reading tasks as well as making learning meaningful, taking into account the age, interests, and needs of children.

In addition, teachers should provide a rich and varied literacy environment. More so, teachers should provide opportunities for children to choose their own reading materials and develop a sense of control over the reading process as well as provide opportunities for discussion, teamwork, and other interactions that make reading interesting and fun.

Finally, teachers should integrate reading into other activities to show that it is an essential, everyday skill with practical value which focuses on the internal reward of personal satisfaction and the achievement of goals that matter to the individual child/person.

Civil society organisations and NGOs are already doing a good job complementing government efforts toward promotion of a reading culture through supporting initiatives such as Rwanda Reads, but more needs to be done in building local capacities of teachers, writers, readers, librarians, local publishers, booksellers, among others. This would help in building up ownership and sustainability of the campaign.

The private sector should have a direct role towards enhancing the quality of education in communities in which they operate. They should come up with sponsorship programmes like interschool debates, building school and community libraries, and donating books to schools in their corporate social responsibilities.

But there are various problems that threaten developing and maintaining the culture of reading especially in schools today. Some of the challenges do stand out and these include; the environment we live in, our mindset and general attitudes towards reading.

For example, how often do parents or teachers take time to read for their children…if you don’t read for your child they will not read for their children because you can’t give what you don’t have. So the cycle will go on and on. Like they say ‘Tell me and I will forget, show me, and I may not remember, involve me and I will understand!’ I love this Swahili saying that ‘mtoto wanyoka ni nyoka, and the English say that readers beget readers and that a reading parent gets a reading child.’

My question is, as parents and teachers are we role models for our children when it comes to reading?

Many people barely read even newspapers. The trouble of being born in the television age is that it has discouraged concentration of the mind and encouraged serial, kaleidoscopic exposure. Rather than read a good novel or biography children may prefer playing cards, computer games or indulge in some other pastime outside reading.

We normally leave our children and students to concentrate on routines of academic course books which are at times monotonous and boring. We forget that there is a great relationship between reading and good academic performance!

To address the challenges of poor reading habits that are deeply rooted in our society, our children have to be trained at the earliest age to read well. This means access to a wide variety of quality books at home, school, and building public libraries and setting up programmes that encourage reading for pleasure – because the surefire way to develop a reading culture is by making reading a habit, after all we learn reading by reading!

I wish you a happy literacy week!

The writer is an educationist, author and publisher.

mugisteve@yahoo.com