ANSDREAD LEAGUE

You may be wondering what ASREAD LEAGUE is and what it tends to achieve, here is a brief description of the subject matter......

BACKGROUND: Reading helps in all-round development of a person from his birth to death. It adds new sight to eyes and new wisdom to mind. A dump person becomes a communicator and a lame climbs mountains of knowledge through reading.  Reading loads the mind with new software. Reading is a tool of acquisitive mind; it is a vehicle for obtaining ideas that cannot be transmitted verbally. The individual who reads well has at his command a means for widening his mental horizons and for multiplying his opportunities of success. Reading is a vital factor affecting intellectual and emotional growth. In the modern education much more reading is required than in the past. Insofar schooling is concerned; reading is the most single study tool.  According to Rubin (2002), “reading is a total integrative process that starts with the reader and includes the affective, perceptual, and cognitive domains.”

PROBLEM: However, in the modern multimedia society, the radio, television, cell phone, computer and the Internet have captured a big slice of time and reading has taken a back seat. These new gadgets of technology have become the “Time Eating Machine” and reading has almost become a closed book. Children, youth and adults alike are more inclined towards new technology for information, entertainment and pleasure.

In Nigeria, a study carried out by Henry (2004), reveals that 40 percent of adult Nigerians never read a non-fiction book from cover to cover after they finish school. The average Nigerian reads less than one book per year, and only one percent of successful men and women in Nigeria read one non-fiction book per month. The same study showed that 30 million Nigerians have graduated from high school with poor reading skills. Some Nigerians may not read because they are not working in the right field(s). The magnitude of this problem jeopardizes the future of our public schools.

At least Five Thousand and Two Hundred (5,200) students take the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) every academic year within the Federal Government Colleges alone. Amongst this number mentioned, not up to fifty percent (50%) bag credits for English Language. This results to repeating classes, subsequently depreciation in the desire to learn, ending up in large number of school dropouts yearly. These dropouts, in a bid to survive become scavengers and agents of destruction of societal norms, value and dignity.

THE NEED OF THE HOUR: The acquisition of reading skills has a beneficial effect on all school subjects, including social studies, science, mathematics, and so on. Poor reading skill can make a child develop a poor attitude toward school and can create self-esteem problems later in life.

Acquisition of reading skills and encouraging readership attitude has gone beyond library usage and classroom reading session. The achievement of this requires diversified approaches; improved funding of schools, establishment of libraries, associating reading with pleasure, excursion to libraries & exhibition, encouragement of library usage, appropriate legislation, resuscitation of mobile library services, etc.

NENI-AFRIQUE MULTIPLE BENEFIT SOLUTION: We at Neni-Afrique identify the need to associate reading with pleasure and created the “ALL NIGERIAN SCHOOLS READERS’ DRAMA LEAGUE (ANSREAD LEAGUE); a creativity platform where innovative competitions take place in virtually all areas of study. The platform provides coaching sessions, mentoring, and competition on creativity, presentation skills, positive values, social and emotional skills using drama.

Our choice of drama is as a result of the fact that drama internalizes reading and has an emotional and intellectual impact on both the participants and audience members. It holds up a mirror for us to examine ourselves, deepening our understanding of human motivation and behaviour. It broadens our perspective through stories that portray life from different points of view, cultures, and time periods.

There are four parts of ANSREAD League, namely; coaching, competition, mentoring and nurturing.

These four parts of ANSREAD facilitate the students’ physical, social, emotional and cognitive development which in effect;

·         Increase awareness of self (mind, body and voice) and others (collaboration and empathy).

• Improve clarity and creativity in communication of verbal and non-verbal ideas and
• Deepen understanding of human behaviour, motivation, diversity, culture and history.

COACHING: Our coaching session is aimed at facilitating the healthy, psychological and emotional growth of strength, skills and success. We have the online coaching sessions and the real time coaching sessions. Our projected outcome for our coaching platform is to see our students excel in their examinations nationally and internationally and also in their socio-economic struggles. 

COMPETITIONS: Our drama competition is designed to test;

• Creativity of presentation
• Use of Language
• Overall coordination and inter-personal relationship
• Positive values/ message

This test happens at three levels; preliminary/ state, regional and national levels. The competition as an enterprise is designed to promote brands of sponsors, serve as electronic media content and involve participation of the entire public through the short-code SMS.

The projected outcomes of the competition are; Encourage and improve the readership attitude of the young ones in school, discover the creative potentials of these young minds, improve interpersonal relationship and competitive skills in schools, promote private sector involvement in education in Nigeria.

MENTORING: In our mentoring platform, we develop a deeper professional relationship with the individual or team whose talent is discovered on our competition platform. We through mentoring enhance clarity of purpose, confidence, determination and dedication.

These four core factors are achieved through;

·         Teaching the mentored on specific issues that relate to the discovered talent/ potential.

·         Up skilling of the mentored.

·         Facilitate the mentored growth by sharing of resources and networks.

·         Challenge the mentored to move beyond his/ her comfort zone.

·         Focus on the mentored total development.

NURTURING: Our nurturing platform strictly promotes the personal and professional growth of our mentored in ensuring scalability and sustainability in their career.

We achieve this through brand development, brand management, brand promotion and networking