NAN-H-54
Reading
By Akeem Abas
Ibadan, Oct. 24, 2016 (NAN) Mr Abayomi Akinjide, Co-Founder of Christianah Foundation, on Monday in Ibadan urged students to imbibe reading culture to resuscitate the falling standard of education.
Akinjide stated this during the inauguration of the renovated school library at Elekuro High School and donation of cash prizes to indigent pupils by the foundation in memory of Late Chief Elizabeth Akinjide.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the late Elizabeth was the wife of a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN).
The younger Akinjide said that efforts were being put in place by the foundation to revive reading culture among Nigerian students.
“What the Christianah Foundation is doing now is to encourage book reading and writing and you cannot be writing without having people to read them.
” A lot of efforts are being made to encourage people to read. Government too must also be able to invest more in education.
“We are doing this as a foundation to sustain the legacy of our late grandmother, Mrs Elizabeth Akinjide, who has so much passion for education,” he said.
He urged parents to encourage their students to read from childhood, adding that the best gift parents could give their children was qualitative education.
The family, he said, would ensure the foundation was sustained to build future leaders and improve the standard of education in the state.
In his remarks, Mr Kunle Lawal, the Principal of Elekuro High School, commended the foundation for the gesture, saying absence of reading habit was a major problem facing secondary school education.
“This has made most youths of today academically backward, socially deficient, morally unbalanced and politically uninformed and misinformed.
“The importance of reading culture cannot be over emphasised in educational institutions,” he said.
Lawal said the renovation of the school library would help develop reading culture among the students in the school. (NAN)
TAA/CEO/OJO
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(Edited by Mufutau Ojo)