Foundation for Sound Mind and Crisis Intervention, FOSMACIN, appears to be worried with the poor reading culture among Nigerian youths and some adults. Blessing Isonguyo, president of the organisation told Newsworld that only 13 per cent of candidates who wrote the 2008 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination made five credits including English Language and Mathematics, while two per cent got the same score in the National Examination Council, NECO, organised examination. She said this stimulated the organiation to institute reading clubs in schools in the state.
So far eleven secondary schools in the state have benefited from such clubs with hundreds of books donated to them. Isonguyo said the dividends are bountiful with students now showing glaring signs of being studious by reading their books.
The advocacy which began in 2008 is intended to cover as many schools as possible in the state. The organisation’s president is worried that with the over 2,000 public schools and quite a good number of private schools, they are only able to touch eleven schools so far.
FOSMACIN hopes to dedicate the most part of 2012 to the reading campaign in secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State, which will be extended to privately owned ones. Isonguyo said “this kind of programme needs financial support for the organization”, but however expressed determination to successfully achieve the objective. Promises have been made to also engage school teachers in the development programme. Admitting that the quality of education is measured on the output/input of teacher and students ratio, Isonguyo said at such a time when a substantive success is achieved in the reading programme, there will be training and workshops for teachers. Although, it seems a long term programme, the group said there is a commitment to also train the teachers for a good value of education.
The dream for the project was developed about eleven years ago, which the founder said was given to hr as a vision. She stressed that the mission is to ensure people rediscover their positive track “because everybody has a purpose for creation.”
The organization has been running a life inspiring and purpose driven conference to get people into discovering their talent and purpose in life. The conference has mainly been counselling oriented with highlights of roundtable and cell breaks in a manner that can get people into role play discussing their problems and sharing ideas on how to solve them.
Isonguyo, who explained that militancy in the Niger Delta and even the Boko Haram menace is as a result of lost confidence and hope in oneself following lack of commensurate employment for those who have graduated from schools boasted: “if you give me a criminal to counsel, that criminal will drop his gun every weapon and become a new person useful to the society.”