Promoting Ethnic and Religious Diversity for the Nigerian School Children: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

The  aim  of  this  study  is to  provide  evidence  on  the  school  library  as  an  important  medium for promoting ethnic and religious diversity among the Nigerian school children. Though the issue of  diversity  continues  to  evolve and  expand  in  the  21st  century  to  include dimensions  of  race, ethnicity,  gender,  culture,  abilities,  sexual  orientation,  socio-economic  status,  age  and  religious preferences  (Perrault & Mardis,  2015), the Nigerian  nation is  presently  being  troubled  by  the  crisis  related  to ethnic  and  religious  groups.  The  education  system  seems  not  to  be  doing  much  in  encouraging coexistence among the citizens. The school library serves as a safe place for addressing these issues of ethnicity and religiosity among learners from diverse backgrounds in the Nigerian school system in which the school timetable is busy with a lot of passive learning activities. Even though ethnic and religious diversity should be addressed in a normal classroom environment, there is still a continuous rise in the lack of ethnic and religious coexistence in Nigerian community which has brought about religious  rivalry  and  ethnic  bigotry  in  the  different  communities  of  the  nation (Akwanya, 2015; Ojo, 2016).  This has continually led to a greater output of school children who are not ready to welcome other  cultures  and  religious  beliefs  when  they  become  adults;  thus  steering  violence  among  other members of the community.