The State of Reading in Selected Secondary Schools in Oyo State, Nigeria

The paper is a survey of reading in selected secondary schools in Oyo State, Nigeria. It covered schools selected across the three senatorial zones of the State. In undertaking the study, the researcher with the support of research assistants first observed the teachers and students in the schools in their reading activities and later administered a self-designed questionnaire on them. The questionnaire sought information on the reading related activities of teachers and students as well as the availability or otherwise of materials to facilitate reading in the schools concerned. Descriptive statistics of frequency and percentage counts were used to analyse the data generated from the study. The outcome of the study revealed that reading is not given adequate attention in the schools the way it ought to, all the subject teachers do not handle the teaching of reading while the reading activities in the school are left to the discretion of students. Among the teachers who give attention to reading, we found a majority of them who failed to give students the necessary motivation to strengthen their interest in reading. It was also found out that most school heads contributed to the poor reading culture of the students by their attitude to issues that bother on reading and how it can be promoted in their schools. This is because most of the schools have no functional libraries and other facilities that can promote effective reading of reading. Based on the foregoing, adequate recommendations that would promote reading at the secondary school level in the State have been made in the paper.