..as Proprietor wants government to adopt the Book Week strategy in schools

Activities for the 2024 Book Week organised by the CABATAF Schools Akure, climaxed today with a fun-filled event, featuring pupils who participated in book reading during the week, sharing the lessons they learned from the books.

The school’s Book Week celebration, which kick-started on Monday with the theme “Reading to connect”, included visits to the library by  the pupils to read books of their choices.

Also, the author of a book titled “The Company “, Pastor Bunmi Akinsemola, was invited to educate the pupils on the need to cultivate reading habit. After extensive discussion and interaction with the pupils, he also encouraged them to start practising writing short stories to enhance their writing skill and become creative writers.

During the grand finale on Friday,  the pupils were made to dress like the favourite character in the book they read.

Speaking about the programme, the school’s Proprietor, Mr. Yinka Ogunode underscored the need to promote reading culture among the young ones, noting that reading increases vocabulary and grammar, enhances creativity, and promotes concentration and discipline.

“To the glory of God, CABATAF has produced three young authors and the books of two of them are being used in schools. When you encourage children to have activities like this, going to the library and interact with authors will encourage them. Every reader is a leader, so, we encourage children to read. We have a library, so, reading is not just during the Book Week, it’s a continuous process.

“I strongly recommend for the state government that there should be a book week every year. A country like the Philippines has national book week every year, Nigeria can adopt the same strategy because when people read they become better citizens, they become leaders and acquire more knowledge”, he averred.

According to him, the idea of holding book week was birthed last year, making this the second edition and affirmed that the initiative improved and had come to stay as party of the educational activities of the school.

He advised parents to contribute their quota in promoting reading culture in their children by buying them books and also discourage them from addiction to video games.

His words: “When I was young,  my parents would take us to buy books and that’s what we would read for that week, and after reading you would be made to explain what you read. It helped us to develop our vocabulary and be able to speak good English”.

The pupils took turns to share their experiences and favorite characters in the books they read. Kudehinbu Moyosore of primary 5 who read “Not Just Too Big or Small”, said she learned that age is not a determinant for success if you are focused and committed to the cause.

Also, Tunde Alarape of primary 5 read “The Narrow Escape” and learned that stealing is a bad habit; while Iremide Epebinu of Primary 4 read “Honesty is the Best Legacy “, and learned that it’s not good to judge people based on physical appearance.

On her part, Ajanaku Beauty who read “No One is Ugly”, said it’s not good to underrate people’s performance based on the event of the moment.

They all expressed their readiness to continue reading as they affirmed that reading is fun.

The week also featured creative design of logos by some pupils to showcase Book week.

The books authored by CABATAF Pupils are: “Allen learnt in the hard way by Fortune Ololade Nwashidi”, “Bad friends are always around us by Adesomoju Olomolatan Agape”, and “Tony the Proud boy, ‘Honesty is the best legacy’ , both written by Oluwabusola Philips”.