The very first memory I have of reading books is from my childhood when my aunt brought story books from the government school she taught at. My primary school was in a village in Azad Kashmir, lacking even proper walls, a roof, and chairs to sit on. No attention was given to developing reading habits in students. I am a by-product of a private school; the one I did my metric from further inculcated the readings habits in me. We would have a period allotted twice a week for reading session. Each year two books (one in Urdu and one in English) were made a part of curriculum and we were shown relevant movies on the topic. This is how a love for reading was promoted and I owe my being a reader to this practice.
We complain about a lack of reading books in today’s youth and poor conditions of our public libraries. But have we ever encouraged children to read? The culture of reading books is not diminishing in a digital age, but instead this culture is not being properly transferred from one generation to other. We first need to develop this habit in our children starting from our homes. Only then the conditions at public level would get better.
Iqra Siddique ( Rawalpindi )