‘Education system needs to be revamped to promote book reading’

Islamabad : Renowned poet and scholar Iftikhar Hussain Arif, expressing concern over the declining book reading trend, Friday underlined the need to change the education system altogether to create love for books among the youth.

Book reading habit is dying down rapidly not only in Pakistan but all over the world, Iftikhar, an author of five well published books told APP.

It is natural that novelty attracts people everywhere in the world.

We see old and worth following trends are forgotten and replaced with the new ones.

But that should not have happened in the case of reading habits," he opined.

He said with the emergence of electronic gadgets, books had lost their charm in society.

"Electronic books (e-books), mobile phones and computers had taken the place of reading and communication.

I started reading and collecting books since my childhood and still my thirst for reading books has not quenched.

Though e-book has halted the progress to promote book reading and damaged the business of book industry, but still it is unable to break the bond between genuine readers and books, he added.

Despite the fact that access to e-books is quite easy in Pakistan as money is not involved in it and it is also easy to carry them around.

"Yet it is also a reality that you remain unable to create bond between the reader and the book, he observed.

Iftikhar, who has widely travelled abroad, said that in the past book corners were seen in every street in foreign countries, but now they had also vanished there.

Now you only find some great bookshop and publisher names, he added.

He believed that defective education system was one of the major causes of decline in the book reading trend.

He also observed that the drastic changes in cultural values and adaption to new and easy ways to get success were other major causes to put a dent on this trend.

We see students carrying heavy bags and gaining enormous knowledge, despite that lack of critical thinking and wisdom can be noticed.

We put stupendous burden on young shoulders that they seek freedom and comfort in weightless gadgets.

It is their short cut to get quick knowledge without an exhausting research, he lamented.

They do not feel the need to go through different books to complete their assignments.

What they do is simply to get the required and desired material from the Internet.

We need to change the education system altogether and create love for books in young minds during early years of their lives, he opined.

When contacted, Zohaib, a bookshop manager told APP that e-books had badly affected their business.

We generally see a number of people heading towards restaurants to order expensive meals or deals, but they rarely visit a store to get a new book.

Nowadays it is only at the start of an academic session that we see people rushing in to our shops to buy syllabus books only, he added.