EVALUATING THE READING ABILITY OF PUPILS IN SELECTED UPPER PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN ABEOKUTA METROPOLIS (EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to evaluate the reading ability of pupils in the later years of their primary education. Sixty (60) primary four, five and six pupils from some selected schools in Abeokuta Metropolis were tested individually. They were rated on a three-point scale for their accuracy in recognizing the words and punctuation marks of sentences taken from one of the school texts. The time spent reading the passage was also recorded. In contrast to the private school pupils, a very high percentage of the state school pupils were found to be very poor and slow at reading. Also a written interview was designed to gather information from teachers of the four schools and recommendations were made on how the government and the school authorities could go about intensifying their efforts to get our pupils to be proficient in reading.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
In order to perform well above average in any academic work in an institute of learning, a student must have developed, to a fairly high standard, his reading skills. As posited by Kirlin (1964) quoted by Unoh (1995) “Achievement in reading is necessary to achievement in school and when no provision is made for achievement by the poor reader, that student eventually is frustrated into a miserable state of failure”. He goes further to say that the relationship between the reading ability to scholastic success is not open to dispute. In the same vein, Cullough and Traxder (1967) quoted by Unoh (1995) stated that “Reading proficiency is the royal road to knowledge. It is essential to success in all academic subjects” the same goes for study skills. A student whose study skills are not well developed cannot succeed in reading skills.
