Promoting Reading In Schools In Sierra Leone

INTRODUCTION
Helping children and adults to develop skills they need to fully participate in an information society is central in a librarian's mission of providing the highest quality library and information service in society. Books help children read. They are more helpful than reading schemes because they promise and provide pleasure in reading. Both teachers and school librarians should be influential in the child's reading process but they need good knowledge of children's literature so that they can choose and help these young readers at all levels (Samara, 2002). The Library Association (1991) singled out four areas as being enhanced by reading and use of a variety of sources of information namely: intellectual and emotional development; language development; social development; and educational development. In view of this there is every reason for teachers and librarians to promote reading in school. What then is reading?
READING
Current attempts to define reading tend to regard it as a thinking process with attention focused on comprehension. That is to say reading is a mechanical and thoughtful process requiring the reader to understand what the author is endeavoring to communicate and to contribute his own experience and thoughts to the problem of understanding. As far back as 1913 Huey began formulating such ideas as can be noted from his frequently quoted words:
until the insidious thought of reading as word pronouncing
is well worked out of our heads, it is well to place the emphasis
strongly where it really belongs, on reading as thought-
getting independently of expression.
In 1937 Gray posited that
...the reader not only recognizes the essential facts or ideas
presented, but also reflects on their significance, evaluates them critically, discovers relationships between them, and classifies his understanding of the ideas apprehended.
Such ideas about the nature of reading continued to expand so that in 1949 Gray wrote that the reader
...does more than understand and contemplate; his emotions
are stirred; his attitudes and purposes are modified; indeed his innermost being involved.
Reading is perceived as a progressive social phenomenon in that it is a means of forming people's social consciousness; it is used as an instrument in implementing the task of continuing education and raising pupils cultural standards. In brief it is a means of increasing professional knowledge and skills and drawing people into a more creative life. In Sierra Leone, however, the task of ensuring that children learn to read, and of finding ways of helping them to do so is one of general concern to all teachers in both primary and secondary schools. One of the reasons why teachers are eager to help pupils to learn to read is that in modern society literacy is essential. In helping children to read they will not only be able to read but that their reading will develop into life-long habit. Thus a great deal of attention in schools is paid to:

- the promotion of children's interest in books
- the supply, deployment and classification of books
- guidance in selection of appropriate books
- training in study skills and provision of time in which to read.
READING IN THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM
Reading in schools in Sierra Leone is embedded in the curriculum and is a continuum starting from pre-primary through primary to secondary schools, as an important studying skill. At both the pre-primary and primary school levels specific reading periods are slotted on the timetable ranging from fifteen to thirty minutes. Reading and Comprehension is a stand alone subject and children are taught not only to learn to read but also to read to learn for self-enhancement, experience sharing and recreation. Thus varied forms of literature are used notably poetry, fiction, drama magazines, newsletters and newspapers as well as non fiction, with the latter cutting across the subjects taught in school.

At pre-primary level teachers help pupils read by giving each pupil a copy of primer readers and encourage them to glance through pictures and ask questions about them as a way of stimulating their curiosity. Slips of papers bearing each pupil's name are clipped to the primer for them to assume responsibility for keeping them clean. The teacher also demonstrates to pupils how to open these books carefully and flipping pages from front to back at a time to avoid damage. A few short sentences consisting of three to four letter words are read with pupils following in their books. After a while pupils are called upon to re-read each sentence orally. The main purpose of such a lesson is to introduce pupils to books and to teach them something useful regarding their care. Each lesson is different in design from all subsequent ones in order for the reading lesson to be of value to pupils. Typical lesson plans for teaching reading in schools include the following:

- Preparation for reading i.e. teacher shows pictures and stimulates pupils to tell related experiences, play games and tell stories;
- Guiding reading from the reader; and
- Skills-building procedures.
At the primary school level pupils read for a much longer time entire passages and if possible a whole story. They are also taught either to read as a class or divided into groups, and this exercise could be teacher-guided silent or oral reading; silent study with workbooks; dictionary or practice reader, or dramatization and choral reading exercises. Chief exercises of oral reading include reading aloud from books especially readers, notices, stories, poems and adverts. The value of oral reading exercise in school include:
1. It gives practice in using current grammatical expressions.
2. It helps to overcome speech and aid literary appreciation.

3. It makes pupils more conscious of the need for current pronunciation in speech, and to contribute to the fundamentals of reading.
4. It helps to serve as an index of pupils eye movement.

At secondary school level no special period for the art is slotted on the timetable but reading is one of the main thrusts of English Language and Literature-in-English classes. At this level pupils are expected to read in relation to their problems and are taught to master information and improve their oral skills; they are also assisted in their critical thinking, search for information and or to answer specific questions, proof-read and get a general view of a book. Such exercises are a build up from those taught in the primary school. Thus pupils are encouraged to read not only prescribed texts for both English Language and Literature-in-English subjects but also those prescribed in the subjects offered in school. In all these activities the school library is expected to play a reading role by offering a full complement of programs to include pre-school hours, clubs, homework help and Internet to assist in developing reading and information skills. It should also promote the habit of reading for pleasure and provide a systematic training in the care and use of books (Barbara, 1994). The library should also be able to stimulate reading with the provision of relevant reading materials (Hannesdottir, 2000) and provide working area for pupils to complete their assignments according to their own ability rate. Teachers alike use the library to enhance their teaching performance and to carry out research (Connor, 1990)