Oyo lawmaker advocates compulsory library for schools

jchima

The need for every school and household to have library was advocated recently by the member representing Iseyin/Itesiwaju at Oyo State House of Assembly, Mr Afeez Adeleke.

Adeleke who is the Chairman House Committee on Education said the present poor performance of students of public schools in external examinations was as a result of nonavailability of libraries in most schools and homes.He said this at the 2016 edition of Federation of Iseyin Local Government Students (FILGS) annual Career Talk program which was an organised national body of the students’ association at the Aseyin’s palace in Iseyin.

Adeleke, while enjoining school and administrators to reach out to their alumni associations for donation of new and used books, called on parents to create bookshelves at home for their wards to be able to access books for reading at their study times, which he said would go a long way in changing students’ attitude to education and improve their overall academic performance.

“An adage says ‘show me a brilliant student, I will show you a good library, it is apparent that the major factor militating against good academic performance by our pupils in public schools is the lack of a library. No matter the standard, even if it is not modern, there should be somewhere for students to go at their leisure to read and do personal research.

“We discovered that many books distributed by State and local governments are being kept in Principals and Heads of Schools’ offices instead of creating libraries and allowing these pupils to access these books, this trend should change.

“Schools’ Alumnus should be contacted to donate new and used books while our students should be encouraged to go to the library, parents should also create a little space at home for bookshelves that will serve as the library. These will at the end help encourage reading and eventual improvement in performances by students in public examinations,” he concluded.

The guest speaker at the 2016 edition of FILGS annual career talk program, Mr Alhazan Abiodun who is an employee of Oyo State Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism called on students to identify a role model within their immediate environment and schools who has done well in his or her career to emulate.

He charged them to always pick on the course of study in which they have comparative advantage where they could perform well at the level of s higher institution of learning while advising parents not to force their wards to read any course of study for which they might not have the intellectual capacity.

Source: http://nigerianewsnow.com.ng/2016/10/18/oyo-lawmaker-advocates-compulsory-library-for-schools/