By Saio Marrah
The Head Teacher of the Kissy Junior Municipal Primary School, Amelia Morgan, has called on government to establish libraries to other communities within the country as a way of improving reading ability among school pupils.
Speaking to politico at an Inspiring Readers,Reading Promotion programme, organized by the Sierra Leone Library Board-Kissy Branch, on Tuesday 30th March, 2021, Morgan said this will allow school pupils to utilize their precious time in reading their books, work out their assignments and have access to books they hardly get outside of a library.
She pleaded with the government to erect libraries in communities that will help pupils spend time with books they can use to solve such assignments and at the same time improve on their reading skills.
She also encouraged parents to get their children inculcated into the habit of reading and provide them with books that have pictures and drill them in naming authors and their books.
Aminata Bangura as Hub Librarian at the Sierra Leone Library Board, Kissy Branch in Freetown noted that with the support from Book Aid International based in the United Kingdom, they have assisted the Sierra Leone Muslim Congress at Kissy, Sierra Leone Muslim Brotherhood, also in Wellington and the Kissy Junior Municipal School by first training the school teachers and also supplying them with more than 1,500 books. She said thos schools are also the participants in the “Inspiring Readers, Reading Promotion program me.
She said this is because reading habits among school children has drastically reduced due to so many social activities “ I think most activities especially reading habit has been lacking and because of these social attractions like football and other things, children are no longer coming to library as they used to do”, she noted;
Chief Librarian, Salieu Turay, said for the reading culture in of our children in Sierra Leone not to die out, efforts should be directed at “igniting again the fire of reading of the Sierra Leonean.
Abu Zano Kamara is a stakeholder at the Low cost Housing Estate Kissy, said the programme will build up the educational foundation of the children.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (31/03/21)
