Reading Culture Is What Our Secondary School Education Lacks

I went to one of the most prestigious secondary schools you can find in Rwanda. Established in 1929, Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare ranks as our first secondary institution with a well-equipped library in the country. The library system – three librarians, a computer program that classifies various books in their alphabetical order coupled with shelves labeled history, novels, biographies, fictions, newspapers, to name a few – is remarkably designed to make the access to books as smooth and easy as possible.

However, if you happen to come across a student’s library card, chances are the card will be filled with a list of class-related textbooks, if it isn’t just plain empty. Many students would say, “I do not read fiction because it is not factual, sir – I am a scientist,” as a justification to why they don’t read other written works. One might be tempted to think that they at least read history books or biographies! But the truth is, students simply have no idea how much wisdom can be earned from a book – when it’s not a science textbook, of course.

Youth Literacy, a local organization whose aim is to boost the reading culture among Rwandan youth, has conducted a research on a local high school and the results of the research indicated that 10 out of 44 students have never read a story or fictional book. In the same survey, only 6 students out of 16 preferred reading a story to watching the same story as a movie! There is a common perception related to this survey which is that, in scientific schools, as long as students make straight As in their individual combinations – physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and so on – then the school is great. If the students make As, then no one questions the quality of education the school offers to the students. The same, to a lower but considerable extent, applies to humanities.

 At the end of secondary school, I applied to Bridge2Rwanda Scholars – a highly selective gap year program that prepares students to attend international colleges in Europe and North America and then come back to develop our countries. The application process consists of an online application, an English proficiency test and then interviews. I was lucky to make it to the interviews stage. My interview went smoothly until the interviewers brought forth a very unexpected question that challenged the quality of my education: “Tell us about the books you have read.” That minute, I lost my words. The whole room got silent as the panel was waiting for my response! I was not really expecting such a question. I knew they were not looking forward to hearing Advanced Level Physics 7^th Edition, Giancoli or Analysis, which – honestly – were the only books I had ever read in all the 20 years I have passed in this world.

 Luckily enough, the selection committee looked at an applicant’s overall preparation, including extra-curricular activities, academic excellence, community services, leadership potential and many other aspects of education that build a student’s talent. So fortunately, the culture of reading was not the only factor considered in the selection process. Needless to say, if the reading question was heavily regarded in the interview, I would have failed it. I made it into the Bridge2Rwanda Scholars program and immediately started to read as much as I could. It was time to get exposure to the reading and research based education system that I had not experienced before.

 While I appreciate the history of Rwanda’s liberation struggle that I learned in secondary school, I could not have appreciated so much how reading A Thousand Hills (a biography of H.E. Paul Kagame by Stephen Kinzer) solidified my knowledge about that subject. Moreover, going through various readings such as The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, the essays and sayings of Chinua Achebe, and Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela to name a few, has not only turned me into a better, more knowledgeable person, but also enhanced my critical thinking that enables me to address the challenges of the real world. Indeed, “Reading, in all its variety, is vital to our becoming better informed, having a better understanding of ourselves and others, and to our development as thoughtful, constructive contributors to a democratic and cohesive society” (Ndikubwayezu, 2009: 11).

 In my humble opinion, instilling a reading culture in our present and future generation should be a responsibility of every one, and parents plus teachers should play a key role. The good news is that our government is doing a great job investing in the construction of public libraries, and more quality readings than ever before are available online to those who can spare a few credits of airtime to view them. However, I highly doubt that people will effectively use them if our schools continue to produce students who are not interested in what lies inside great books like Mountains Beyond Mountains, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People or A Thousand Hills.

 It is only by encouraging students to read a variety of writings that Rwandan schools will produce well-rounded graduates who will be well equipped with communication skills, on top of their professional abilities, which together are instrumental to the development of our country. Probably, this is the step that our students must take so that employers will stop “pointing an accusing finger at training institutions for reportedly churning out half-baked products,” as Collins Mwai recently said.

The writer is a Bridge2Rwanda Scholar ( ddusabirane@gmail.com)