By SYCORAX TIYESA NDHLOVU –

CONCERNS of the poor reading culture in Zambia have been cropping up not only by teachers but parents and other concerned citizens.
And if the government doesn’t take immediate actions to improve the reading culture in learning institutions, Zambia is likely to be producing professionals of low calibre in all respective fields.
It is well known fact that effective reading skills are key to sustainable and successful career development process.
A Lusaka resident, Chileshe Mumbi says she is a regular reader of Let’s Talk Careers’ column in the Times of Zambia every Saturday.
Ms Mumbi says she is impressed with the articles published under this column as they guide her on how best to look at career-related issues and motivate her to work hard to achieve her career goal.
Ms Mumbi says such articles help her to follow footsteps of professionally competent and courageous women like Dr Anna Chifungula, the Auditor General; Ireen Mambilima, the Electoral Commission of Zambia Chairperson; and the newly-appointed Vice President Inonge Wina among others.
The Lusaka resident has urged many other citizens who want to prosper in their career life to take keen interest in reading such articles in the Saturday Times of Zambia as they serve as good career coaching reference materials.
Back to the poor reading culture in pupils and students which is demonstrated in poor spellings, grammar and poor writing skills, calls for a speedy intervention.
If one assesses spelling, grammar and writing skills at any level of our education system, one will be disappointed that such skills are worryingly too low for such a level.
Most pupils and students at any academic level seem to have serious challenges in effective reading and writing skills. One wonders what has happened to our education system!
It is from such a background that a Luanshya History and English language teacher, Timothy Kambilima has been consistent in raising his concerns on poor reading culture in our country.
And recently, Kawesha Kasanda added to such concerns in a letter to the editor published in the press on January 27, 2015.
This writer also wrote under this column how reading culture affected career development before.
And because such an issue keeps on being raised, it means nothing much has been done to correct the situation. Annual poor academic results at grade seven, nine, 10 and 12 levels attest that reading culture and writing skills in schools need to be improved.
Substantiating such a need, comparative studies done globally including in Africa and Zambia reveal that our country’s quality of education indicators are very poor.
One can confidently argue that such low quality of education indicators spring from poor reading culture as most pupils, students and professionals aren’t able to comprehend and write effectively in their daily academic assessments and professional duties respectively.
While pupils, students and professionals should make efforts to improve on their reading culture, government through the education ministry should also facilitate improvement of reading culture in learning institutions and public libraries by addressing critical factors that affect reading culture in the country.
Availability of adequate and appropriate reading books in schools, quantity and quality of public library stocks, calibre and attitude of teachers; especially those teaching English language contribute to quality of reading culture in a country.
How parents supervise and guide their children in formal education related issues also contribute to quality of the reading culture.
Additionally, to enhance reading culture, Mr Kambilima suggests that pupils in schools should develop more interest to read newspapers, magazines, novels, etc punctuated by reading competitions among pupils. But
Kasanda adds further that actually reading should be taught as part of language development in schools. It was suggested that reading shouldn’t be a one off activity in lessons; but that it should be part of the language development lessons.
From such recommendations, one can also propose that government should introduce ‘Reading and Writing’ or ‘Literature’ as subjects in schools for all pupils. Such a subject would prepare students in colleges and universities to have effective reading and writing skills.
Such suggestions to improving on reading culture remind one of how reading was treated in schools some decades ago.
Most of the English language textbooks had a ‘Can you remember’ exercise at the end of each topic. This exercise was a set of questions on the passage to test comprehension.
But in assessing how much one can remember, it also evaluated the reading skills of a pupil.
At Chipata district Chinunda Primany School in Chief Madzimawe, for instance, we had teachers like Mr Bornface J Nyirenda, Mr Holland Moyo, Mr Charles C Nthara, Mr George Mwanza among others who encouraged pupils to borrow books from a small school library for pupils to develop effective reading skills. Such a process was encouraged from grade 1 to grade seven.
Similarly, at Chadiza Secondary School, from Form 1 to Form 5, pupils were encouraged to finish reading at least two to three novels per week; depending on the size of novels one was reading.
Novels written by various African Writers’ Series’ authors such as The Concubine,Animal Farm,A Grain of wheat, The River Between and Things Fall Apart which pupils were encouraged to read.
Pupils were encouraged to narrate each of such stories to friends and relatives as a way of promoting comprehension skills from what one has read.
English language teachers like Mr Arthur Banda, Mr L Gondwe, Mr Efron Lungu (now Dr Hon. Lungu) and others were good engineers in ensuring that pupils read as many English language novels as possible.
To achieve this, libraries were full of different good books in almost all learning institutions throughout the country.
It is from such a background that we now such writers like Samuel Kasankha, Laston Moyo, dramatists, film actors, teachers and lecturers.
Pupils, college and university students are supposed to spend much of their time reading on many different subjects and topics to write tests and assignments confidently in order to gain high marks in their academic pursuits.
To achieve this, pupils and students need to develop not only effective reading skills but also require effective writing skills.
Ask those who seem to have genuinely excelled in their academic and professional life. Such people will reveal to you that they seriously took reading (studying) as a hobby.
To prove how effective reading skills affect your career, Gillie et al (1997) in Read To Write states that to be a good writer, you must also be a good reader.
And communication skills experts argue that in business, most officials spend 30 per cent of the daily times writing memoranda, reports, proposals, minutes, letters of inquiry, letters of complaints, etc.
But one writes from what one has read! In short, effective reading skills inspires effective writing skills.
And there is no profession nowadays which doesn’t require effective reading and writing skills. Therefore, one cannot be said to be a professional in any field if he has poor reading and writing skills.
In this light, one can argue that effective reading skills are a cornerstone of effective writing skills. And that both effective reading and writing skills lead to high levels of effective professionalism in any field.
This is because effective reading skills which are a product of good reading culture facilitate high levels of articulation of issues in one’s professional field.
As a result, one can argue that poor reading and writing skills negatively affect one’s professional competence, job opportunities and career advancement.
Therefore, while other hobbies like watching films on television and playing soccer might be  beneficial to your life, good reading culture adds more value; and can be more rewarding than any other hobby in your life.
Consequently, if you want to succeed in passing with flying colours in your academic and professional studies; and achieve your career goal, develop a hobby in effective reading skills that will propel you to effective writing skills.
Effective reading and writing skills increase your knowledge that facilitate professional competence, more job opportunities, more promotions that provide an enabling environment for achieving your career goal.
Therefore, develop a good reading culture as a hobby for your successful career.
The author is a trainer and career coach.
Contact: Cell: 0976/0977 450151 E-mail: sycoraxtndhlovu@yahoo.co.uk