A retired teacher in Kano, Dr Musa Ahmed, has urged parents to ensure they effectively instill reading culture in their children, toward helping them to maintain it till adulthood.
Ahmed told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday, in Kano, that it was the responsibility of parents and not the school to ensure a lasting reading culture.
The school reading culture, he said, absolutely depended on the existing culture initially created from the home.
“While growing up, our parents used to sit us down and read stories for us, as well as other historic documents; and at later stage, they encouraged us to start reading for them even before school.
“Their efforts gave us a lot of appetite for reading and what we found in school was different from the books our parents were teaching us.
“In fact, those at home were more interesting because they were mainly for leisure,” he said.
Ahmed advised parents to invest in purchasing leisure, yet educative books for their children to study.
He also tasked parents on the need to discourage their children from reading online; from the computer systems and mobile phones.
“Our libraries have been abandoned by youths because of the advancement of technology and if we want the situation to improve, then we have to take measures,” the retired teacher said.
According to him, parents should devote extra time to listen to their children read to them, and can even encourage them with incentives. (NAN)
