Turning Kids to Happy Readers?

One cannot help but to notice the many buntings and banners in the city to "celebrate" the national reading month. Along with the theme of "Rajin Membaca, Pasti Berjaya" (Diligent in reading, guarantee success) plastered all over the city as well, I am wondered how much money was spent on this marketing campaign while there are libraries that are in dire need for new and updated books.

I am not going to comment about the libraries - how beautifully built some are, how many internet or hi-tech accesses there are and what smart card library system there exists. I will not dwell on some of the funny rules such children a certain age are not allowed in, skirt measuring some funny length are not allowed and how strongly some library enforces them - seeking these rule breakers out and chase them out of the library. I will also not talk about the librarians who do not know / love books and who are there merely because its a job. I will not talk about Dr Haji Wan Ali's promises of a new and better library next year neither will I participate in the discussion about producing more local writers, producing local books.

What I am curious is why is there such an obsession the celebration in the month of July. I am curious about teh need to spend extra money (not on books) in this months. I am curious about the additional talk shows on radio talking about reading. However, I am really concern about what will happens after that, or rather what will not happen - people reading.

I am concern that we do not recognize that the the reading culture is the result or symptom of our social environment. We treat this so called lack of reading culture as it is the end and the main problem. Should we look at our own social environment - an environment where we do not have serious emphasis on knowledge and information. With an education systems that pays lip service to "a learner-centered education policy based on the Constructivist principal" (education minister's speech in Taylor's college, March 2005). While not having the will to move away from spoonfeeding our children. The continued examination-driven culture has narrowed our focus to reading required materials, reading to pass exams and reading because children are forced to read. What about for knowledge and personal development. What are we doing about this?

What sort of a society are we? Skip to any radio channel (all channels) at any given time of the day and you will find almost all the channels are playing music or talking about celebraties with dotting of interviews before blasting away loud music the next moment.

Browse any Free To Air (FTA) television channels and count how much information, news and commentry we get? The crux is - entertainment sells. I dread to see what would happen when Media Prima takes over NTV7. We will have all the channels selling advertisment, spoonfeeding us with almost useless news in between.

Reading is a cultural thing, cannot be changed by putting banners, posters and running campaigns. It needs to be addressed from the fabric ouf our society starting from learning and education systems, if we are lucky we will evolve over the next two generations.

For now, the best bet is from within the family. Parents need to drive and be an example of these intrinsic values.

K V Soon

further reading, check out:
http://www.ifla.org/VII/s33/project/my-report.pdf (for a report of the 2003 celebrations)
http://www.pnm.my/ (homepage of the national library)