“Learning is a vast phenomenon, goes on before and after entity.”
The basic foundation of children’s learning starts from home with the blessed tools of observation and sensation, gesture, and communication in a local dialect up to the age of five. After completing the period of five years, a child gets enrolled in a school for pursuing formal education. Alma-mater is a place where a child gets nurtured consciously and rationally wholly.
“To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.”
― Lao Tse
Sad to say, our education system is a pile of flaws and defects from the advertisement of teaching to recruitment, from teaching to learning, and from curriculum design to teaching syllabus in our surroundings.
It is a century of modernity and innovation but the teaching methodology and syllabus both give a sense of the stone age. Some reading materials offer outdated and decadent information. For suppose a reading text about “national flag” shows merely about design color and representation. It must include the name of the first national flag maker with the year. That makes vivid sense for readers. Bogus and useless data must be erased replacing the knowledge of the 21st century. Old and outdated lessons like the invention of the radio are a burden to kids of today. In the contemporary era, a child needs to be taught from the perspective of modernity instead of conventional aspects.
In alma-mater, a child is kept limited to the syllabus just to pass the exams instead of encouraging a child to read any book out of their syllabus ( story, fiction, or history). Resultantly, we witness poor creative and critical thinking approaches among children, they are the future of tomorrow and will shape the destiny of a state from the perspective of progress and development to achieve sustainable development goals.
There is a dire need for reading culture in Pakistani society. Reading culture digs out one’s inner being and opens up the vast doors of insight to comprehend each aspect deeply and broadly in the nature that is; critical and rational thinking approaches, insightful generalization and analysis, developing creative ability and capability, unlocking inherent cum cognitive potential, enlightening the mind with ample knowledge, improving one’s self, communication skills, etc.
In the past, the worth of people was judged by the knowledge and wisdom he or she possesses. The intellectuals of the past collected their thoughts in the form of books in order to understand each aspect of the universe in a systematic way which is the foundation that brings us into the era of modernity. But what today are we doing for the coming generations?
Every year, our political figures and concerned people make vows that we bring a massive revolution in the education sector. In the end, They break each and every promise. It is persisting and prevailing tactic of political people to manipulate the masses.
More importantly, here many people claim that the main cause of diminishing reading culture in our society is virtual mediums such as the internet and different platforms of social media where youth gets engaged for up to hours by using it.
In reality, virtual media is not the reason for decreasing reading culture because the internet along with different platforms of social media is used across the globe, and the progressive countries and their learned people use the internet properly rather than wasting a whole day searching for useless stuff. In addition, the youth of developed states aged between 15 to 25 read books and publish their books on different topics as well.
So, It is evident from it that virtual medium is not caused by poor reading habits but the usage of futile internet is.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” George R.R. Martin
According to the index the countries that read most are India, Thailand, and China. India is first in the perspective of reading books followed by Thailand and China. Resultantly, today, India moves phenomenon and will be blooming in the future in each perspective- be it education, politics, or socio-economic growth. Secondly, China is also making terrific progress in many aspects. Recently, China made the artificial sun which is one of a terrific made progress in China as well as across the globe. Thirdly, Thailand is making tireless efforts to set its literary rate up to 100%. This is what makes the country unique of all.
On the contrary, a recent survey conducted by Gallup and Gillani Foundation Pakistan revealed that only 9% of Pakistanis are keen readers and 75% aren’t reading any book out of their syllabus. This is an alarming state for the progress of our beloved country and its citizens.
Here the question arises how can we develop a reading culture in each and every corner of Pakistan? So, firstly, Provincial governments and federal governments jointly need to formulate a policy to recruit separate literary teachers for the students of grades 1 to 12.
After that, in educational institutions, story books with meaningful morals should be offered to students in grades 1 to 3. So that, students will be able to write their stories with morals and learn about good and bad practices. The children’s literary books should be provided to students in grades 4 to 8. So that, they will be able to develop the thinking approach. The researched magazines or papers on science and books on history should be provided to the students of grades 9 to 12. So that, they will be able to train their mind consciously and rationally.
Secondly, Learned people and progressive youth of the country need to organize study circles on weekends to promote reading culture in the surroundings. Thirdly, Large and small libraries should be established in cities and villages throughout the country. It will certainly develop the craze of reading culture among future leaders.
Fourthly, the Book reviews competition should be held at the district level to the country level. It will surely increase the percentage of reading culture.
Lastly, High-ups in government, concerned authorities, and learned people of the society should come forward to promote a reading culture that will shape the future of the country by deeply pondering over it.
If the mentioned productive steps are taken, then would have incredible outcomes for the progress of the country in each perspective and that will surely enlighten the name of our beloved country Pakistan on the map of the globe.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” says Nelson Mandela.
The writer is a teacher and educationalist.
