FCT ERC Director says reading aloud panacea for expanding children’s horizon
Hajia Neemat Abdulrahim, Director of the Federal Capital Territory Education Resource Centre (FCT ERC), has emphasised the importance of reading aloud to children.
She stated this on Wednesday in Abuja on the occasion of World Read Aloud Day, which was organised by the Abuja City Library, saying it was the best way to help children develop the mastery and grammatical understanding that form the foundation for learning to read.
Hajia Abdulrahim, who stated that reading aloud frees schoolchildren from struggling with vocabulary and decoding, emphasised that it will make them enjoy the text and get into the books, adding that oral story telling is an African natural way of presenting human knowledge, insight, and creativity.
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As a result, she urged stakeholders in the reading campaign programme to work with City Library to develop effective programmes that would improve the quality of education in the FCT.
Dr. Abbakar Sani, publisher of Sprezzatura Publishing Limited, emphasised the importance of reading to human survival.
He said, “Reading is a very critical component of learning. In everything someone can do today, it has to be from reading and the only two components that can change the level of human being are what you read and the people you associate with.”
Reading, he believes, has the therapeutic power to educate, entertain, and inform the general public, emphasising that it is the primary agent for eradicating darkness and illiteracy from human minds.
“It is from reading you get educated and enlightened. Even religious leaders encourage it. It is very important that children learn how to read because if they don’t, their education cannot work out well as it should.”
The World Reading Aloud day is a global event celebrated every February 1st all over the world. The first Read Aloud Day was launched in 2010 to promote diverse voices and narratives around the world with its mission statement, “Strengthening kids and communities through the power of stories.”
