A pupil picks a book from the hanging library at a school in Ejigbo, Lagos [Muhammed Bello/Al Jazeera]
Metropolis Desk-
Three years ago, Abigail Babatunde struggled to read her schoolwork and frequently asked her teachers for assistance pronouncing challenging phrases.
The primary six-year-old student, who attends a public school in the working-class Lagos area of Ejigbo, reads them independently at home. She now also reads a lot of books on friendship and adventure.
Her teacher, Eniola Akanbi, asserts that Babatunde, who aspires to become a doctor, is also more engaged in class. “Now, Babatunde [Babatunde] would jump up whenever I asked for a volunteer to come up to read to the classroom,” she recalled.
Babatunde, a prospective doctor, claimed that reading makes him feel happier. And because I read the day before, I can react when a teacher asks a question in class. I occasionally read the signboard as I stroll down the street.
The new library that was built in her classroom in January 2022 modified the plot.
The library is a makeshift fabric bookcase that hangs from a nail inside the classroom. Its size is somewhat larger than a hanging shoe rack and includes seven to ten compartments, each holding three to five books of various sizes. The books are arranged vertically and in diminishing order by size.
The Neo-Child Initiative, a volunteer organization with nearly 300 devoted volunteers that provides mentorship and literacy assistance as well as free medical care and medications to children in low-income neighborhoods, provided the bookcases.
The effort is primarily supported by donations from family, friends, and volunteers as well as proceeds from a book drive. In Abuja, the federal capital, and cities in six states, there are currently 50 libraries and more than 5,000 books, ranging from academic textbooks to children’s picture books.
A UNESCO 2022 assessment estimates that there are over 20 million children in the nation who are not in school. But because state schools in Nigeria receive little money and students who are still in school do not have access to basic resources, the quality of basic education has suffered.
Since education is free up to that point, it is believed that two-thirds of Nigerians have a basic level of literacy. However, Cristian Munduate, a UNICEF official for Nigeria, stated in January that “75% of children aged seven to 14 years cannot read a simple sentence or solve a basic math problem.”
Seyi Bolaji, founder of the Kaduna-based Project Educate A Child (ProjectEAC) campaign, thinks these numbers are a conservative estimate.
“The 20 million are those that are counted, what about those that are not counted … because people are still giving birth and they do not care whether these children go to school or not,” said Bolaji.
Additionally, she continued, “Too much energy is being directed toward children who are not in school while those who are are considering quitting because of the poor quality of instruction.” “What is the point when those attending school are still unable to read and write?”
The Hanging Library, which launched in Lagos in 2017, aims to fill this void.
To get to work, TNCI’s founder Yusuf Shittu would pass by Babatunde’s school while performing his obligatory one-year national service in Lagos. One day, he discovered that the seven-building school complex lacked a real library or a designated area for book storage.
His father instilled a love of reading newspapers in him as a young child. He decided to share his love of reading with others, saying Al Jazeera that the program offers the potential to change an entire generation.
Experts appeared to concur.
“It’s an innovative solution to a deep problem in our society,” said Kemi Ogunsanya, a project manager at Lagos-based online hub TeacherX Project. “A lot of factors and lack of reading materials is one of the causes of the declining rate of reading culture. A lot of schools don’t have libraries and are only left with just bare classrooms.”
More than half of Nigeria’s estimated 200 million people live on less than $2 daily, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. For many of them, their meager wages can barely afford enough food, much fewer books for their children.
“You can’t give what you don’t have,” said Bolaji. “There are some families who have not eaten for days, telling them to invest in buying textbooks for their children will make one look stupid.”
According to Ogunsanya, the hanging libraries can help students from low-income homes at their schools better their grades and have a broader perspective on the world.
“A reader is a leader,” she declared. “A reader will always have a wider perspective, and all of this will frequently have an impact on academic advancement.
However, more needs to be done with efforts like these, according to experts, to address youngsters outside of school as well as those in classrooms. Bolaji stated, “The school is just a building; a youngster can learn anywhere. “We can teach the street kids how to read and write by bringing this mobile library to them.”
Shittu claims that there are plans to spread it to more villages in other states and create a scheme to replace books that are torn or missing, but those plans must first overcome financial and logistical obstacles.
The library has changed Babatunde’s life, she lives with her father and has only one caretaker who works as a butcher during the day and a security guard at night. Since she cannot take books out of the school, she chooses any book from the library to help her with her assignment during the day.
Without a Silver Spoon, by Eddie Iroh, is frequently the book she chooses to read. It tells the tale of a kid born into poverty who is falsely accused of stealing in the home where he works as a domestic helper to pay for his school tuition.
Babatunde sprints to the hanging library next to the chalkboard during her class’s daily 15-minute free periods to obtain it before anyone else does. She’s already reading the pages as she makes her way back to her seat.
Source- Al Jazeera
