We need to get kids reading, right now
You may have heard it before that Thais read just five books on average. The repeated citation may reduce the intensity of your alarm. But if you agree that books are sources of knowledge, we cannot afford to stay idle.
Peoples in our neighbouring countries read much more than Thais. Most Malaysians read 40 books, while Singaporeans have read 45, and Vietnamese people read 60 books each year.
Will these statistics nudge relevant authorities in Thailand to take serious, continued efforts in promoting the love for reading among Thais? I myself am waiting for the answer.
Last year, the Education Ministry unveiled a two-year plan to encourage Thais to read more under a budget of Bt400 million. It even designated April 2 as “National Reading Day”. It held various activities for the promotion of reading. Among them were a best-library contest and a reading-corner contest.
But after a while, all these activities fade away. I don’t see any concrete intended results from the plan anymore.
Till now, I have not heard how researchers will explore Thais’ reading interest (or lack thereof) and develop useful, appealing books.
The increasing number of visitors to big book fairs in Bangkok over the past few years is nothing to rejoice about. It is true that the number of people at the latest Book Expo Thailand, which was held last month, attracted up to 1.95 million people and generated the sales of well over Bt500 million.
But if we take a closer look, we will find that the number of visitors accounted for just around five per cent of the Thai population.
Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand (Pubat) president Worapan Lokitsataporn also pointed to another worrying sign. The average lines read by Thais each year has now stood at just 35, down from 39 lines four years ago.
“IT influences people more today. IT gadgets have taken more of people’s time and people read less,” Worapan said.
He did not think the huge availability of tablets and e-books had encouraged people to read more.
“No, people have used their IT devices more for entertainment,” he said.
Moreover, best sellers at book fairs are more often than not romantic novels. They are fun to read. They come with appealing covers. And indeed, there are a huge variety of such books for readers to choose. Have other types of books boasted equal variety? I am afraid the answer is “No”.
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is convinced that cartoons are very appealing too. So, it is preparing to develop one of its public libraries under the Cartoon… Inspiration for Reading theme. It hopes a great selection of cartoons at its Huai Khwang Library will inspire children to develop a love for reading.
With Bangkok being named the World Book Capital 2013 by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), the BMA hopes to boost the number of books read by Bangkokians to between 15 and 20 next year.
I hope the BMA will stop at nothing in trying to achieve that goal.
Serious efforts by relevant authorities are sorely needed to spark a Thai love for reading.
There are many measures that the authorities can do to help. Why don’t they make reading a national agenda?
They can subsidise certain types of books to ensure that the ones worth reading reach a wide audience. They can sponsor a reading contest, to encourage kids to retrieve essential information from some books. If rice-pledging subsidies encourage farmers to stay put on rice fields, book subsidies should strengthen our knowledge and create a more knowledgeable society.
True, new gadgets can promote knowledge, but games and applications coming with them tend to respond mainly to “at-the-moment” fad, not to leave permanent results in kids’ brains. A colleague of mind was a big fan of “Little House in the Big Woods”, a famous American novel from 1932. From cartoons and novels, her reading kept expanding. But now, she reads less and spends more time searching for information on the Internet. Fortunately, at least she knew how to get desirable info from cyberspace, which can be extremely distracting for disoriented kids.
Action is needed now, before books become just a decorative item in children’s homes in the future.
CHULARAT SAENGPASSA
