Why every student should embrace reading culture

University students’ attitude towards reading has recently been a serious matter of concern to educators and academic scholars in the country.

Most students do not read, very few read for pleasure and some only read when there is an examination. Their reading narrows down to textbooks alone and it terminates as soon as the exams are over.

Most talented young people have remained idle after graduation because of a lack of a culture of reading.

Success recently covered a story showing a decline in the number of students visiting physical libraries on the grounds that they use mobile phones and laptops in searching online materials for assignments.

This, according to experts, is creating a society of elites and workers who cannot think critically as reading is a tool for sustainable development. They say this is capable of manifesting change in people’s lifestyles through attainment of better education and employment.

“Most young people do not read books or seek additional knowledge other than classroom work. This is why there are a myriad of scholars with no alternative knowledge in the society today,” says Dr Beatrice Kiliani, author and former lecturer at Kampala University.

Dr Kiliani says mobile phones and internet access have been consuming time for young people, who mostly focus on issues that do not contribute to the expansion of their thinking.

“Reading is not necessarily having to buy hard copy books as one can as well use the internet to access online readings. However, the gadgets are ruining the young generation’s thinking capacity as they are always swayed from important information,” she explains.

According to her, reading is not just for school but also for life and it enhances the chances of success at school and beyond.

“Reading broadens a person’s understanding of life, affords them the tool to explore their talent while learning about themselves and their society. It enables creativity to blossom in a person,” she notes.

Causes of poor reading habit

A poor reading culture among the youth and students in general is associated with, among other things, upbringing.

The head of the department of Reference and Community Information Services at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Dr Wulstan Mtega says a reading culture should be built at a young age because it is not something that evolves from nowhere.

More distractions

He says entertainment equipment such as the television has contributed to the decline of reading among youths as people like to sit and watch TV programmes rather than reading.

“Today’s children spend a lot of time watching cartoons as soon as they drop their bags from school. When will such a child know the importance of reading books?” queries Dr Mtega.

He blames parents for the poor reading culture since they don’t involve themselves in activities that would enhance reading habits.

“I can say that this situation will only get worse going forward because we are too late to train our children to read books. We do not buy books for them and we do not talk to our children about the importance of reading and education in general,” he notes.

Dr Mtega also says the education system sometimes contributes to making students just look for a way to succeed and not gain knowledge.

Dr Veronica Deus, a psychologist based in Dodoma concurs with Dr Mtega, saying there is poor parental support and guidance in many homes.

She says many parents do not engage themselves in children’s learning processes like, reading with them, providing them with educational facilities and materials, talking to them about school and learning and engaging in other joint activities.

“Parents’ or family involvement has a significant and long lasting effect on students’ outcomes throughout the education and life trajectories. Failure to guide the children is an enemy to the reading culture,” she opines.

Lack of interest in reading

She also says that students’ reliance on lectures and hand-outs, lack of interest in reading when there are no examinations and classroom activities and poor tendency of individual learning are other factors that impede growth of the reading culture.

For Dr Zabron Magesa from the University of Dar es Salaam, most teachers do not instruct students to review and summarise books of their choice, reward or give incentives to students who have read at least one book in a year as motivation.

He says that teachers use poor methods of teaching reading skills such as lecturing students, teaching and instructing students in Kiswahili while notes are given in English.

“Debates and morning speeches are poorly organised by peers, and most language teachers do not take trouble to listen and help students. This is the outcome of what we see when these young people reach in their university levels,” he expounds.

Turning the tides

Dr Mtega says it is a well-known fact that reading fosters creative thinking, builds inquisitive minds and enhances lifelong learning abilities of a person, but building a culture of reading is something that should start at a very young age.

“Parents and guardians must start preparing their children to love reading books, because through reading, society gets people with extra capacity who are able to think and solve community challenges,” he advises.

Dr Deus, the psychologist observes that reading habits should be developed and nurtured in life using various ways, most of which require much effort and determination to be achieved.

“Reading should not occur as a result of conscious pressure resulting from academic tasks or as a way to prepare for employment. Rather , it has to occur all the time in order to build up a person’s mind and enable them to criticise, analyse, create, imagine, determine their well-being and view the world in its totality,” she tells Success.

She says that reading should be made a habit that should occur as a daily activity.

“As such, one should not stop reading at any level throughout their entire life. Reading should take place at any point in life enjoyably and regularly, in such a way that it becomes part of an individual’s life activity,” she proposes.

For his part, Dr Magesa says that teachers, librarians and colleagues should play a role in encouraging students or individuals to make their reading culture become stronger.

He says since reading habits are inculcated from the adolescence age, a student at an academic institution is expected to master the reading skills in order to excel academically.

“At this stage a student should have had access to the library resources as well as other sources of academic support that in a way should be responsible in encouraging their reading habits,” he notes.

Dr Magesa argues that parents’ involvement in home literacy is crucial to students’ reading habit development.

“The success of an adolescent through the entire secondary education and later in the university is to a higher extent determined by his or her family,” he believes.