Extra care must be taken to ensure schooling is not turned into the biggest enemy of reading, according to Education Minister Evarist Bartolo.
Speaking following the damning results of a Eurobarometer survey stating that 44 per cent of Maltese have not read a book in the last 12 months, the minister said that intrinsically linking books to examinations and tests will only serve to kill the students’ pleasure of reading.
“When students look at books in light of what they must commit to memory and how they will be tested, it becomes an exercise in fear and anxiety. In this manner, schools would be working against reading and writing.”
For Mr Bartolo, the worrying statistics mean harder work to ensure that the up and coming generations indulge more in reading than their predecessors.
There are many good local authors – let’s expose them to our students
Part of the National Literacy Strategy, Mr Bartolo continued, was to inject an element of pleasure back into reading. He referred to acclaimed children’s author Anna Wilson who last week toured a number of schools promoting the pleasures of reading.
“I used to read a lot as a child but I never met the authors of my books – the books were all written by dead people.
“The fact that children are introduced to authors and realise that they themselves are writers will lead to a wider readership because our skills, intelligence, the way we behave as citizens and the ability to think critically depend a lot on reading.”
Does he believe that the types of books which form part of the school syllabus and the subsequent way literature is imparted to students should be reviewed?
“Yes, I do. Regarding Maltese literature for instance, our adolescents believe that in order to love it, you have to love the Malta of 80 years ago and the literature which reflected that period.
“It’s good to read Maltese authors writing 80 years ago but we also have contem-porary authors who are writing on topics which very much interest today’s adolescents.
“Let’s bring these books to them or else we’ll be giving the idea that to like Maltese literature you have to love waistcoats, pipes, hats and prickly pears. These are all true but there are many more things linked with today’s life. There are many good local authors – let’s expose them to our students.”
According to former National Book Council (NBC) chairman Ġorġ Mallia, the statistics do not indicate that the Maltese are bad readers but that they are bad readers of books. A good number of locals read magazines and newspapers, Mr Mallia insisted.
However, the Maltese are culturally notorious for not carrying books around with them. For instance, very few patients lining a doctor’s waiting room would bother to read a book.
“It’s imperative that children be allowed to read whatever they enjoy,” Mr Mallia explained, warning that well-meaning adults who imposed old classics could effectively destroy a child’s love of reading.
“Books should be present at home and children should be enticed to pick them up.”
Deficient areas where no books were present at home and where families had no culture of reading should be targeted directly.
The NBC had been working with social workers by providing them with books to pass on to children of such families.
The council used to also collaborate with midwives who would in turn get parents interested in bedtime reading.
Even the way literature was taught needed to be remodelled in a manner which shifted the focus off the clinical and pedantic elements of literature and onto the beauty of emotions which infuse it.
The National Book Festival will officially kick off tonight. The book fair at the Mediterranean Conference Centre will run from tomorrow until Sunday. For the full programme of activities visit http://education.gov.mt/en/Documents/programm.pdf .