CHILDREN are moving away from the reading habit to vulgar electronic based entertainments which is taking an alarming turn to defeat our efforts to create a highly educated society based on the reading habits of the general population. Reading ignites the imagination and it is not enough to be literate to make a person a serious reader. To be a reader one should have the passion to learn. It develops the foundation of a knowledge based future generation. It is to be noted that Bangla Academy has rightly appreciated the matter and designated a children’s corner in the Ekushey Book Fair this year to influence the reading habits of children.
A news report published in a national daily recently raised the issue at a time when more and more children are switching their habits towards playing computer games and such other cheaper entertainments and are thereby neglecting their school works and reading habits. The report has urged the Bangla Academy to make the children’s corner more attractive by using imaginative ideas for decoration. Parents believe that the section may have more collections of books with colourful pictures and rhymes and stories which may create excitement in young minds.
History tells us about the poor reading habits among the Muslims in this part of the world. For over two centuries, Muslims in this region were unable to develop good reading habits mainly due to poverty and a poor level of literacy . The trend changed in the latter half of the last century. But it is moving to a different direction again in the recent past with the emergence of electronic technology and especially due to its abuse. Children’s growing attraction to video games, TV programmes, cartoons, facebook and such other social networks are destroying their reading habits and poor reading or no reading means losing one’s links to the past and closing the window to a creative future. Most English medium schools offer e-teaching which is now replacing textbook reading. It is also ignoring the need of keeping school libraries taking the students interest away from reading.
In this background, Bangla Academy’s efforts to building reading habits in young children are no doubt praiseworthy moves, although much more is needed to be done at schools and at the family level. Private initiatives like Biswa Sahitya Kendra are also running mobile libraries but it is just a small effort to return the young people to reading habits. Moreover, the present violent politics which is marred with corruption and greed is devoid of ethical norms and is not supportive towards the development of reading habits in the young people. It must go first.
To make the schemes successful more adventure and travel related books and science based fictions may be promoted by publishers to lure children to reading. Here the government patronization is essential to publishers for bringing out more children friendly literature in quality papers at cheaper cost.
Moreover, we ask the government to go back to the old practice of setting up more public libraries at local level. One must know that, not only intellectual backwardness comes from the lack of reading habits, the new spate of street fights, vandalism, drug addicts and such other anti-social activities are ruining the society now because of the lost reading habits in our young people to turn them into anti-social elements. We welcome Bangla Academy’s initiatives regarding the promoting of reading habits of young children and suggest more government and non-government initiatives to come into being in this regard.
