Oxford University Press East Africa (OUPEA) has urged stakeholders in the education industry to promote the culture of reading.
It has been noted that, reading and language underpins progress, impacts on a student’s achievement throughout primary and secondary years, affects self-esteem and behaviour and plays a huge role in a child’s future life chances.
Speaking Wednesday evening on the 21st Nairobi International Book Fair that will run in the next five days, OUPEA’s General Manager John Mwazemba noted that competitive edge will stem from the quality of skills curved from a reading culture.
Mwazemba, however, noted that to be knowledge producers, students will need to develop additional skills beyond reading and memorizing content.
“We have left the information age and entered into the innovation age; today’s students must prepare to perform on the global stage. Content knowledge remains critical but our young people need to develop additional skills to achieve true success. Books as well as parents and teachers can play an important role in nurturing the necessary skill set,” he said.
Themed ‘Books for Nurturing Skills’, the Nairobi International Book Fair (NIBF) plays host to writers, authors, script writers, owners of publishing houses, publishers, and teachers and students from 55 local exhibitors and 15 international exhibitors from China, Uganda, Korea, Senegal, UAE, Tanzania, South Africa, India, Pakistan, US and Nigeria.
Mwazemba noted that with the huge amounts of information available, students need skills in evaluating, summarizing, and analyzing information.
“Students must learn to be flexible and adaptive thinkers as they figure out how to use information to solve problems, create new perspectives, and generate new products and ideas,” he said.
Mwazemba reiterated that students need practice in developing perspective by learning how to consider multiple points of view in order to make well thought-out decisions that will contribute to the collective good.
“The books we publish are not just learning tools but they seek to address the challenges facing our society today. We critically think of the impact our books have on learners and hope that they will equip them with the values and skills that are much needed in this age,” the General Manager said.
During the exhibition and fair Oxford University Press will on Saturday, September 29, 2018 release this year’s CODE Burt Award winner, Kinyanjui Kombani’s book ‘Finding Colombia.’
Kombani, who is known as the banker who writes, was announced the winner at the Burt Award Ceremony held early this month at the Ghana International Book Fair in Accra.
His winning book is based on the life of a street boy named Lex whose fortunes change after he gets recruited by officers from the Anti-Drugs Agency to work as an undercover agent in an investigation to track down a notorious but elusive drug baron.
During the five-day event, OUPEA will also unveil a series of books in line with the curriculum needs. These books are designed to propel the country to a middle level, knowledge driven economy.
The publisher has launched a series of books dubbed ‘Teacher’s Companion’ to equip teachers with the necessary skills that they will need to effectively play the role of a facilitator in a classroom in the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) environment.
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