Rebuild our reading culture

 Many Papua New Guineans are struggling and writing their manuscripts but continue to find difficulty in publishing their books.  

There are a good number of people who are writing but the problem is that we, as a nation, have not encouraged reading in schools or homes.  

There is no ‘reading culture’ because we do not value books and value reading as an important life skill.  

Even if we introduce reading in a classroom, there is insufficient number of books available in the schools because we never considered that books were important in the students learning.  

PNG needs to change that attitude to value books and encourage a reading culture among our students by flooding the schools with books.  

The greater majority of students spend more time on their phones than on a book because there are fewer books available but more so because of the interactive nature of their mobile phones.  

Phones have far greater number of application that suit different users for different occasions.  

Even if there are books, the students lack motivation to read simply because they have no interest to do so.  

Books are not interactive and are monotonous so anyone one struggling to read will find books boring.  

Why do they have no interest? 

It is simply because the value of reading has not been inculcated into their educational experiences while at school.  

Even parents have not taught them to read or provided opportunity for them to learn to read. The Book of Proverbs tells us that we need to train a child in which to go so that when he is old he will not depart from it.  

We need to encourage our children to start reading early in their life so that when they are growing up through the school system they will embrace reading and continue to read into their adult life.

As a result many Papua New Guineans are not reading for any purpose at all.  

I overheard an MP telling one of his supporters (who had a newspaper in his hand at the time) that reading a newspaper is not good enough.  

He encouraged his supporter to read books regularly to not only get educated but be sufficiently informed to be empowered in the information era.  

It goes to show that if one cannot read regularly, that person is inadequately educated and therefore ill-prepared or disempowered.

This reminds me of Alvin Toffler who states that: ‘The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn’.  

It means one must constantly learn through formal schooling or through reading books (e-book included) to learn anew, update on past knowledge or redundant knowledge with new knowledge, and relearn on emerging new knowledge.  

If we don’t encourage a culture of reading among the young people, it is likely that they won’t be able to learn, unlearn, and relearn – a valuable functional skill required in the 21st century.  

Are we doing enough to encourage reading among the young people in school to learn, unlearn, and relearn?  

Are you embarking on a mission to learn, unlearn, and relearn? 

Make it a habit to buy books from anywhere in the world (from Algeria to Aitape, from Korea to Kotna, New York to Iokea, and from Scandinavia to Sina-Sina).  

Students may never travel to these far off places in their lifetime but they can travel there through reading even without physically leaving their home. 

Such gifts are excellent contributions towards their learning and overall quality of education.  

You may consider buying e-books for your children if you can afford it. 

By providing such reading resources and opportunities you are empowering your children to read in order to learn, unlearn, and relearn to survive in the 21st Century. 

Conclusion

Reading is a missing link to enhance quality learning. 

The parents want quality education for their children. 

Teachers strive to deliver quality teaching and learning experiences in class.  

If we want quality education we must invest in quality education through quality teacher training programmes, improved teacher inspection and supervision, and increased provision of textbooks and other teaching and learning resources.  

Reading is one of the many important life skills that help educate, inform, liberate, and empower an individual.

Parents, teachers, head teachers, school boards and leaders at various levels have a duty to contribute towards achieving a quality education.  

Making a deliberate decision to improve the quality of education means we must take the first step and make the sacrifice to invest in getting the most essential inputs into the children’s education done the right way.  

Providing students with reading materials (textbooks, library books, printed and e-books) is the first step to improve the textbook per student ratio, thereby putting in their hands a reason and a purpose to read widely around to learn, unlearn and relearn.  

Reading will help students to learn, unlearn, and relearn to achieve quality education in the 21st Century.  

Reading helps students to be better educated, well-informed, liberated and highly empowered.