Necessity in National Development and Nation Building. Voices from Africa
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263 Literacy and Reading in Nigeria Vol.13, No. 1, 2011 An Overview Voicesfrom Afi'ica on literacyfor the attainment ofsustainable development: Nkechi M. Christopher University of Ibadan, Nigeria [email protected] Abstract Development is achievable and sustainable through literacy. Africa has lagged behind in both. To improve living conditions and make life worth living for Africans, the achievement and sustenance offunctional and lifelong literacy is a necessity in national development and nation building. Voices from Africa on Literacyfor theAttainment ofSustainable Development addresses diverse issues The book on literacy as the fulcrum of sustainable development. of readings denotes advances being made in the African literacy landscapes, suggesting that African scholars are coming to grips with Africa’s literacy situation. Keywords: Language Literacy LiterarySustainable development Training Introduction The contributions in this book of readings address many issues on literacies for the attainment of sustainable development. Although the book is titled Voicesfrom Africa on literacy for the attainment of sustainable development, some chapters have been contributed by non— Africans from the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom, in addition to on themes and how the Afi'ican authors. The contributions are grouped into these four parts based w1iters handled them: 1. General: Postulations on matters ofliteracy and sustainable development 2. Literary works and projects 3 . Training and literacy projects 4. Language and literacy research to The tour of the books takes us from Swaziland to other African countries and back Swaziland ~ the last chapter is concerned with how to find a way out of the devastating menace being wreaked by HIV and AIDS in that country. Part 1:General: Postulations on matters of literacy and sustainable development have been and Papers in the first part of Voices dwell on how literacy and access to literacy African environment to sustainable can be entrenched in the pursuit of a literacy-rich engender remedies to development. In Chapter 1, Alan Brody, writing from his heart, proffers literacy various socio—cultural problems and inadequacies in the continent, from household management on the scene in Swaziland when to the fight against the HIV and AIDS scourge. Brody was HIV/AIDS ravaged the small country and responded in his capacity as the UNICEF fruits representative by exploiting the enchantment in storytelling, such as “The forbidden fru—fru epidemic,” to deliver the message ofcaution to the people. In another vein, Alan Brody indicates that successful teaching leaves enduring impact on is learners, especially when it is in tune with their environment. “Doing” literacy reaching people also as a of the in the “language” that they understand; not only as a linguistic entity, but product Reading Association ofNigeria and Literacy Reading in Nigeria Vol.13, No. 1, 2011 264 environment. His major concern in the paper is how we cut across to people inside and outside the classroom with literature and literacy that they can identify with, and which bring about personal development and social change. Good writing and good books cannot be compromised in teaching literacy, but are worthless without societal values, learner participation and, particularly, good teachers. Onyedikachi Abiodun-Ekus and Chukwuemeka Onukaogu in the next chapter also make reference to the training of teachers on literacy teaching in Nigeria. However, the focus of their chapter, “Reading in Nigeria: Yesterday, today and tomorrow — The place of RAN,” is the activities of RAN (Reading Association of Nigeria) since its inception, as wells as its teething problems, and what it has offered and stands to offer Nigeria and Africa. The indication is that RAN, having been set up to redress the falling reading culture in Nigeria at her critical period of socio—economic crises, also played a major role in the establishment and sustenance of PAN African Reading for All Conference. Both bodies have provided forums for teacher training and professional development of reading specialists in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. Therefore, they suggest that RAN’should provide leadership in the advancement of literacy development in Nigeria. on the Maduabuchi Focusing individual, Chinyere (Chapter 3, “Building a total person for sustainable development through reading") insists that in today‘s world only a “total person” can utilize available resources and opportunities to live a life with meaning while escaping prevalent of diseases and traps other malaise in society. Taking us through the benefits of reading to the “total and the person" arsenal of literacy skills they possess, she highlights problems encumbering schools from developing that total person. She therefore, enunciated the need for entrenching lCT (information and communication technologies) literacies and the right reading in in pedagogies Nigerian schools, addition to a list ofother antidotes for tackling impediments to literacy development ofthe total person. Ken Goodman in 4: Chapter “Making sense ofall kinds ofprints” suggests that literacy is not the exclusive of set of in — preserve any people society any person that can use oral language can learn to read and write. He in demystifies print any language or writing system and tells us that any efl‘icient reader three when applies cuing systems reading, and that miscues give us insight into how make sense of people print when they read. identifying the psycholinguistic strategies involved in he recommends that texts for reading, teaching reading should be as authentic as so that possible the predictability factor is not compromised. Such materials already exist in the leamers‘ environment. And while the importance of a child learning an international language cannot be underplayed, equating literacy with the ability to read and write in that language and not in the mother tongue is misplaced and hurts learning in general and reading and writing in Goodman particular. observes that developing capacity for mother tongue literacy learning does not investment 7 but the require heavy perhaps, political will and dedicated attention, as chapters by Saleh ldris and Tanya Spronk also suggest. School drop-outs become marginalized in society, but far more than they, people living with disabilities are handicapped without literacy. Cebsile qumalo’s concern in Chapter 5, “Including the excluded in literacy programmes" is how to cater for a significant portion of society that is of access to deprived literacy, acquisition of which will alleviate the suffering brought about by disabilities. physical While many governments, such as that of Swaziland, have statistics of with little is people living disabilities, very being done to address their peculiar needs so that they can benefit from literacy programmes. He indicates that society needs to adopt humane attitudes towards learners with special education needs in order to decisively tackle the diverse obstacles thathinder their access to literacy and self—empowerment. Yetta Goodman gives attention to the literacy development of children. She observes that Reading Association 0fNigeria \ Literacy and Reading in Nigeria Vol.13, No. 1, 2011 265 children are adequately exposed to literacy skills in their environment which need to be built on by teachers and family in helping the child advance on those skills. Seemingly picking up a thread from Ken Goodman's article that says: “Like oral language development reading and writing develop in the context oftheir use” (p. 62), she suggests that the reading curriculum should extend literacy activities taking place around children. “Building literacy on the cxpcricnccs of children” (Chapter 6) indicates that children generally like reading and writing and want to do what they see adults and other children around them do. Moreover, Goodman explains her ‘ conceptualization of multiple roads to literacy learning and gives signposts for identifying and following through. Still on children, Angela Okpala in Chapter 7 identifies challenges to “Reading promotion that school libraries can take to among children in Nigeria.“ Okpala recommends steps engender the love of reading among children and ensure that they have access to books. In addition to teachers and librarians taking advantage of resources available on the Internet in the process. the children can be guided to generate their own reading resources and to participate in promotion ofreading. It is impoflant to ascertain that efforts invested on teaching reading to children are productive. Indeed “assessment has become one of the major determining elements of reading instruction today” (p. 106), surmised Christy in Chapter 8: “Methods and materials for continuous assessment of reading progress among primary children.” She observes that some assessment when tools are generally not easy to utilize with integrity in African situations. especially being no for African which used to assess second languages (European). They are also good languages differ significantly from European languages. Therefore, continuous formative assessment is to be preferred to standardized tests in order to teach meaningfully and monitor reading progress. Christy demonstrates how teachers can design levels oftests and‘locally generate materials in L1 (mother tongue e child's first language) for the teaching and assessment ofreading. in On the same trail, “Some assessment procedures for enhanced teaching