Our country seems to have returned to the Dark Ages as reading, the habit that cultivates the mind and liberates it from the shackles of ignorance, is at its nadir. This disdain for reading has destroyed our educational fabric and the publishing industry. And the cumulative effect is the anomie in our society. The annual dismal performance of students in public examinations and the quality of our university graduates, who are barely literate, graphically illustrate the saga.
Gone are the days when parents used to buy novels for their children as gifts; or students addicted to reading newspapers bought with their pocket money, to keep abreast of global affairs. Schools quiz that exposes students to eclectic reading and, as a result, increases their cognitive quotient has waned. There are schools without libraries all over the place. This is in sharp contrast to four decades ago, when Eze Goes to School, a novel by Onuora Nzekwu and Michael Crowther, was a must-read by primary school pupils.
