Teacher’s mind: Books are essential for literacy

This week began on a very academic note. Monday September 8 is always celebrated world wide as International Literacy Day. This is meant to be an occasion to give hope to millions of women, men, and children who cannot read and write even their own names. The day was proclaimed the International Literacy Day by UNESCO on November 17, 1965. It was first celebrated in 1966. Its aim is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities, and societies. An estimated 781 million adults live without basic literacy skills, of which two-thirds are women. In addition, approximately 103 million children have no access to school and are therefore not learning to read, write, or count. The United Nations defines illiteracy as the inability to read and write a simple sentence in any language. UNESCO has drafted the following definition: “Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. As a secondary school teacher, I have been able to appreciate the literacy challenges faced by some students especially when it comes to learning foreign languages like English and French. At the school level, we often talk of advanced literacy not the basic literacy that the UN talks about in its definition of the word. Most students in schools are able to write and do some reading in the languages taught in school but not in a manner sufficient enough for them to claim proficiency. This implies the ability to read and write at a level adequate for communication. The world that awaits their skills after school is expecting proficiency not just the knowledge of identifying the language being spoken or in which a text is written. Students should be tutored to levels of literacy that society expects. It is almost impossible for schools or teachers to achieve advanced literacy with their students without investing in books. This is all the more important when it comes to elementary schools and primary schools. Government, school proprietors and parents need to buy lots of reading books for the children to not only master the different languages taught in the school system but also to nurture a reading culture at an early stage. There are so many easy-to-read story books that can go along way in achieving the above goals. As an infant I remember reading several children’s books with simple stories that had lines like, “Come come Mary…” It is these books that lay the foundation for language learners to develop a lasting interest for a book, language and the habit of reading. English for instance has been noted by most linguists to be one of the most difficult languages to master because it has numerous grammatical rules and yet it is always adopting words from all corners of the world. For one to master such a language above the basic literacy level, a lot of reading has to be done and so often. Contact: ssenyonga@gmail.com