Unequivocally, education is the bedrock of development in any given society. Nations that want to grow or advance in science and technology will take education serious.
Any country that down play with its education will no distant time go into oblivion.
There are certain things that strengthen the education of a nation. These include: aggressive education policy, qualified teachers, conducive learning environment, good libraries or availability of quality books. In Nigeria the performance of education is going down day by day, due to non-functional e
ducational system.
Students no longer burn the midnight oil to pass their examination, rather depend on malpractices. This has negative effect on the nation’s education system. Graduates cannot defend what they studied in the institutions of higher learning.
Rivers State has one time called the world book capital. A state that attained such statue in the education industry need to have organs that will enhance teaching and learning processes that will ignite knowledge explosion.
However, one of such institutions or organs that will facilitate the learning processes is the library.
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition, library is a “building in which collections of books, CDs, newspapers, etc are kept for people to read, study or borrow”.
As far as I am concerned there is no library in Rivers State. The one that situate on the Bennard Carr Street in the main Port Harcourt Township is mere a building with obsolete books. There are no modern facilities to boost learning activities in the said Rivers library. The environment is not conducive for reading. The frequent users of the state library complaining bitterly on daily basis over absence of learning and instructional materials or aids.
The State Ministry of Education should do something about the dilapidating condition of the Rivers Library by equip it with modern academic materials such as good text books that will encourage research work and projects. ###
Damiete West
08037502931
wdamiete@yahoo.com
