By: Bisma Arthur
I was purchasing a book from my college book shop when my fellow student gave me an astounded look and stated, “ How do you have the courage to buy a book alongside our course book, and how do you even finish it?”
This reaction drops on me like a bombshell and causes me to understand that all the studies demonstrating that our students are lagging behind due to declining reading habits are valid. I might want to give a reference as of recent study here by Gallup and the Gilani foundation which shows that 75% Pakistani students don’t pursue any books other than their course reading. Furthermore, we are altogether mindful of how most Pakistani students read their course book, it’s only for passing the examinations by cramming.
This is not news that our education system( i.e board system) is promoting rote learning and this is the reason we are losing a great amount of talent. I have seen various students with creative artworks however, they are squandering their ability since it can’t be found in our system, not to mention it’s value.
All the extraordinary pioneers or successful businessmen are vigorous readers like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates,and Elon Musk. They have set time restrictions that they will complete a book for every week or somewhere in the vicinity. Barack Obama once said that what he has discovered in his life is through books. Books are a source of getting education, wisdom, knowledge that ultimately lead to critical thinking and reasoning. Critical thinking and reasoning should be the main purpose of education which unfortunately is not a case in our education system. It is likewise a reason behind why our researchers, physicists and biologists do not win Nobel prizes frequently.
There was a gigantic response when news broke that Elon Musk has become the second richest individual on the planet departing Bill Gates on third number. Yet, in the event that you read the life story of Elon musk, you become more acquainted with the fact that he has read books on philosophy, science fiction, energy physics ,and many more. In short, he is a self taught person who has taught himself computer programming, energy physics which are considered subjects from Pandora’s box. What I implied from all this narrative is that reading books is the only way forward for our nation.
In our history, we have ruled this world until Baghdad was a focal point of Knowledge and people from forgein lands used to travel to study there. If we really want to progress and prosper again, we have to get benefits from the jewels of knowledge and adapt reading habits. I suggest we should create an environment in our houses which encourages our young ones to take up reading habits instead of surfing through technology. My message to the youth is that we spend a ton of cash on different things, if we will spend a little in our future, it will be worth it.
The writer is an English newscaster on FM radio and is a reporter of the web Tv Channel. She can be reached at [email protected]