As a first step to attain literacy, inculcating good reading habits is a must. Until a person identifies with words, how can he make sense of it, asks SWATI PAl
The three R's: Reading, w(r)iting and a(r)ithmetic are considered to be the foundations of literacy. Though still far from its goal, literacy in India appears to have improved in the last decade. Reports of the Ministry of Human Resource Development reveal that according to the Census report of 2011, literacy rate of India stands at 72.99 per cent. Overall literacy rate has grown by 8.15 per cent in the last decade. Male literacy rate has grown by 5.63 per cent whereas female literacy rate has grown by 10.97 per cent. The number of illiterates decreased from 304.10 million in 2001 to 282.59 million in 2011.
The figures seem to be pleasing at the first glance, but a reality check reveals some not so pleasant facts. Before delving into those, let's first look at the word ‘reading'. What is readingIJ Recognising alphabets and understanding phoneticsIJ Or is it something more than a linguistic exerciseIJ The process of reading involves an understanding of what goes on between the lines of a text and also of what goes on beyond it as much as it involves an understanding of the words themselves that form the lines of the text. literacy rate is interested only in the last aspect ie the fact that people can identify words and sentences and make some sense of it. But is being literate at such a superficial level, the objective of educationIJ
Reading is actually a fundamental skill that children need to develop. Apart from aiding progress in studies, reading helps to build up an individual's personality in multiple ways. Reading process is more than merely being able to decode a text according to its linguistic structures, we develop intellectual abilities and critical acumen. We discover what interests us. We are able to imbibe useful lessons from what we read and then apply them to our lives. We are able even to discover our own identity through reading. But only if we ‘read' correctly. The bigger question is, do we readIJ We imagine that once children reach the higher secondary level, and ‘read' without any difficulty, they have become proficient readers. We presume that they understand whatever they are reading. But sadly, that is far from the truth.
In reality, most students and even adult professionals are poor readers. And when we turn to schools in India, especially in terms of reading english, facts are disturbing. Various surveys prove that even after the mandatory hours of instruction in teaching, say, english, students are unable to read even the most basic sentences in english. Writing comes much later. And what's the reasonIJ A primary factor is the lack of adequate training given to teachers to help students ‘read'. If teachers themselves are unable to ‘read' well, how can they be expected to teach the students to do soIJ Often textbooks are inadequate as teaching tools for reading. If one were to look at reading only as a linguistic exercise as literacy surveys do, then too, there are obstacles in the form of lack of phonemic (phonemes are the smallest units of speech) awareness. The problem becomes even more acute and complex in regional schools, where certain subjects like english is taught in the regional tongue! Taught, literally, in translation!
The inability to read well has a spiralling effect. Students can manage to clear school exams through sheer rote learning of the text book and regurgitation in the exam papers. On the basis of their marks, they may even make into institutions of higher learning. It is here that they will stumble first because higher studies requires a certain kind of critical understanding of texts that can only occur if one is trained to ‘read' correctly. When they find that they are unable to do so, they will be depressed and demoralised and nurture severe insecurity regarding their intellectual abilities. let's assume that they may somehow scrape though their higher studies. What thenIJ When they enter the professional zone, will they be able tomanageIJ Ever wondered why files and papers at many offices take so long to move forwardIJ The fault lies not in your stars, but in the presence of a reader/s somewhere in that office who is/are poor reader/s.
That this is a challenging problem is certain, but one needs to confront it rather than dismiss. The first step is to recognise the fact that ‘reading' correctly is perhaps even more necessary than mathematics. If one does not read correctly, every discipline suffers; teachers will tell you that students often ‘get the question wrong' in subjects like maths, physics and chemistry too. Hence, ‘reading' should be taught effectively in schools, right from the primary level. Disabilities related to reading often go unchecked, particularly in terms of phonological understanding. There ought to be some means of redressing that and teachers/ family should be alert to signals about such problems. Above all, a reading environment should be created so that there is a desire for people to read more. How that can be done is another story!
(The author teaches in the Department of English at Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi)