By Justina Auta
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s education sector have called on governments and other partners to evolve more measures aimed at promoting reading and vocabulary skills development amongst children.
The stakeholders said this at a Vocabulary Bee competition and launch of the ‘Great Minds’ magazine on Saturday in Abuja.
They said that such measures would entrench standards in the nation’s education sector.
Ms Olamibo Balogun, Creative Director, Great Minds Literacy Readers, said that the initiative was aimed at helping children improve their vocabulary skills and mastery of English Language at a young age.
“We discovered amongst pupils that some can spell but cannot read, the most challenging one is the one that know everything relating to a word but cannot spell it.
Balogun, also the Founder, Eminent Minds Empowerment Initiative, said that the magazine would be published annually with information on literacy problems and how to solve them.
“Our yearnings to reach more people, raise who can read, write, spell and be fluent with the proper diction gave rise to the Vocabulary Bee competition and the launch of the magazine.
“And with the magazine, we will be able to reach out to alot of pupils to go further than learning how to spell a particular word but also learn everything related to the word,” she said.
Also, Edirin Oghenejode, Executive Director, Corporate Services, Total Security Insurance Brokers Ltd., urged government to monitor all funds, projects and initiatives on education.
Oghenejode, who commended the organisers, also called on Nigerians to contribute toward revamping the nation’s education sector, particularly in improving reading culture
“Education is the key and bedrock of any sustainable development, government at all levels should partner with such organisations to ensure reading habits of children are enhanced for the betterment of our country.
“There must be proper understanding and monitoring where these funds are channelled, to ensure that such funds are properly utilised on what they are budgetted for,” he said.
The Director, Britarch Schools, Abuja Mrs Chichi Philips-Orioha, said that it was imperative for stakeholders to support the government at all levels in improving the education system.
“Nigeria has a lot of intelligent and hardworking people, we need to support the government to move the nation’s education sector forward,” Orioha said.
A parent, Mrs Kauthar Babansulaiman, commended the organisers for the initiative.
Babansulaiman added that the programmes were aimed at reviving reading culture, vocabulary and improving standard of education in the country.
The launch of the magazine was spiced with dance presentation and vocabulary bee competition by students from different schools, orphanages as well as distribution of gift items.
The Vocabulary Bee competition and launch of the magazine was jointly organised by Great Minds Literacy Readers, Eminent Minds Empowerment Initiative and some non-govermental organisations in Abuja.(NAN)