BODUNRIN Oluwole, the proprietor of Standard Nursery and Primary School, Ilorin, has revealed that most students prioritize social media activities rather than their academic work, thereby limiting their academic performance.

Oluwole, who disclosed this in Ilorin, on Saturday, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), added that most students spent most of their time reading trending news and watching status uploads on their phones abandoning their class work.

” Social media influence is affecting students negatively. They don’t create time for their studies anymore.

” Most spend the whole day online chatting and watching movies forgetting to open their books.

” Social media is killing reading culture. Students are getting carried away, without any caution from anybody.

” Students’ general academic performance is becoming poor. They performed excellently on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter, to the detriment of their academics,” he said.

The proprietor called on government at all levels and educational stakeholders to intervene on how to revive the dying reading habits in students.

He also called for regulation of the social media, with restrictions placed on students in basic classes, to help awaken their reading culture.

” We know it’s common among all students from basic classes, secondary schools to higher institutions of learning. Something must be done on time to curb the practice.

” Even some play games on their computer sets or their parents mobile phones and forget to read,” he said.

He called on parents to be the watch dogs of their wards and consistently check their children indoors, when they are alone.

He advised parents to stop allowing their children to enjoy access to social media, without proper checks. ( NAN) LEX/MMA

– Apr. 17, 2021 @ 14:29 GMT