WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF THE POOR READING SKILLS INHERENT IN MOST CHILDREN OF RURAL COMMUNITIES?

Objectively, good readers are phonemically aware, they understand the alphabetical principle and apply these skills in a fluent manner, they possess good grammatical and vocabulary skills. It is quite unfortunate that most children in the rural communities are devoid of these skills.

Some of the children in rural communities are raised in poverty and are not provided with the necessary human and material resources needed for good education by their parents. They are impoverished in English language due to their immediate environment, the reading practices and levels of some the parents of these children are relatively low. These children are likely to be at risk of reading failure. 

Similarly, some English teachers in schools are lagging behind in their approach to teaching reading comprehension. The effect is poor performance among students. These teachers lack methods of imparting reading skills to pupils. The condition is so bad that some pupils find it difficult to read and understand a simple word or sentence. It is awkward to see a primary 5 pupil who can hardly pronounce words like came, when, was, life etc. correctly.

Most rural schools lack libraries. This as well promotes the reading deficiency skills inherent in the life style of her pupils. These pupils are exposed to little or no reading materials to help build their vocabulary and grammatical skills.

The world is fast developing; the rural child has to change with the changing global world to be able to meet up with its demands. Possessing good grammatical and vocabulary skills is one of the basic requirements for this change. The ability to reader is one of the determinants of a student's success or failure. The rural child must form the habit of reading to perform well in all subjects. A good reader has better opportunity for greater achievements.