WHY students are afraid of books? Whether they don’t have time or feel that there is no benefit associated with such time-consuming activity. What if we consider AI Generative tools as the new way of finding answers to all academic and routine problems without human involvement in assessing the risks and benefits of various experiments? What will happen if our problems are solved through the eye of a machine than a learned human being? Are we going to miss humanistic consideration for the very humane problems we face daily? Books are written with those humanistic feelings and if machines will summarize these for other human beings then we may miss many punching lines that machines are not able to feel and interpret. How to inculcate reading habits in the youth? Let us find some ways to improve reading culture.
After the independence of Pakistan, the country started on the path of development and prosperity. During this period, Pakistan made its name known worldwide and represented the best in its economy, industry, agriculture, science, arts and culture. Pakistan was considered a role model of developed countries and international-level book fairs were organized in its cities, in which international personalities participated. The students of Pakistan during this period studied with great enthusiasm, passion and knowledge and took interest in their subjects. They would ask their teachers questions, discuss ideas, write analyses, complete research projects and learn about new books—whether they bought books at book fairs, borrowed them, or acquired them from libraries.
During this period, the government of Pakistan gave priority to education and tried to elevate the education of Pakistan by getting the services of international personalities – great scientists and literary personalities and produced many other scholars, artistes and writers. But this period in Pakistan’s history ended in the 1970s, when Pakistan and Bangladesh were about to separate and then suffered political, economic and military crises. During this period Pakistan’s education was neglected and its quality and purpose were eroded. Pakistan students are trained to use shortcuts and earn certificates and are deprived of the ability to research, analyze and create. As a result, students in Pakistan became afraid of books, because they could not understand them, they could not be interested in them and they could only use books to get good marks in exams.
The reforms brought during the previous two decades have improved reading habits as stakeholders were provided opportunities for scholarships, research funding and training through Higher Education Commission. The HEC became the hope for our youths which was previously engaged in different cultural, religious and other activities that further divided our nation in various ways. The middle class started to get results from their hard work in the form of better jobs and other incentives. This trend has overhauled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa completely which was in the grip of extremists and non-state stakeholders due to fewer opportunities in the Government and other sectors. The scholarship projects like FATA Balochistan and Gwadar have helped a lot of families from far-flung areas to achieve their dreams through higher education and resultantly they land decision-making jobs, businesses and projects.
Reading habits are decreasing due to the use of electronic gadgets like mobile, tablets and laptops. The availability of audio and video content on all topics, subjects and disciplines has also contributed to this regard as people consider it convenient to spend less time learning more. On the other hand, colleges, Universities and training institutes still rely on text & reference books. There is a need to refer to all such resources for achieving the learning outcomes of the program. There is a need to divide course contents according to these resources like core concepts and explanations may be viewed from videos and case studies may be placed in books with solutions. Another way is to determine the type of learner i.e. Auditory, Kinesthetics, Visual, etc through various tests in initial classes and assign them course content accordingly. This will help students to retain knowledge for a longer period.
Access to books and spaces for reading is another major issue that needs to be addressed. Female students mostly don’t have dedicated space at universities or in public libraries. Male students have the option to utilize public libraries and other places for peaceful reading, but females have to manage the same at home where kids, kitchens and other activities are happening around the day. It is very difficult to focus and perform various reading tasks in such a noisy and disturbing environment. There is a need to develop such spaces in every nook and corner. There is a need to have literary societies which may provide book borrowing facilities on nominal charges. It may conduct physical or virtual monthly events for sharing book reviews and lessons learned from the reading.
Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter can be utilized for this purpose. It is the reading habit that will help people of all ages keep their minds open for new ideas and ways to do things differently and develop argument skills with relevant evidence. There is a need to address book fear by engaging stakeholders in reading-related activities and for this, the government, society and educational institutions of Pakistan have to facilitate each other. It is the only way forward for becoming a leading global nation, otherwise, we will remain consumers of products, ideas, styles and everything we practice in daily life.
—The writer is Director at Higher Education Commission, Islamabad.
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