Reading is now a Subject in all Ogun State public schools! This groundbreaking achievement comes after years of unrelenting advocacy by The SixthSense Initiative, an NGO that is pioneering the restoration of reading habit in the general populace.
Ogun State, often regarded as Nigeria’s education capital, is the home State of many literary giants, including Nobel Laurette, Professor Wole Soyinka. It is perhaps the first state in Southwest to make Reading a Compulsory subject for learners in public schools.
Announcing the landmark breakthrough, the Founder and Coordinator of The SixthSense Initiative, a literacy advocacy group, Chief Abiodun Lasile shared the details of the journey.
“Before I started writing in 2015, I had created a path to navigate with a careful conceptualisation of literacy advocacy. I wrote twenty three (23) manuscripts, finalised six (6) titles and published four (4) books within six months. The four books were presented to the MoEST Evaluation and Curriculum and three (3) books out of four titles were approved for examination and reading. The success didn’t stop there; SUBEB, UBEC and NERDC recognised the books with different certifications.
“Haven conquered a huddle of publications that’s the mirth of being a published author, I launched the literacy advocacy in 2017 with SixthSense Children Reading Competition Programme and Summer Children Reading Camp a year after and many more till date. I had four clear pointers towards the direction to pursue the literacy journey tagged Our Charge; Government, School, Parent and SixthSense. We were focused on our objectives at takeoff without confusion to these society strata. Abinitio, it looked like an onerous task, some academia didn’t believe it but we sustained the advocacy with ten (10) programmes and concepts.
“We pushed hard for over a decade… The unbelievable is now a reality. Reading is now a Subject in our schools in Ogun State!”
Chief Lasile, who is also Chairman of Association of Nigerian Authors (Ogun Chapter) and Orunto Baalufe of Owu Kingdom, Abeokuta, expresses gratitude to all stakeholders for their support. This milestone marks a significant step towards transforming education in Ogun State.
