Bandar Seri Begawan- Poor reading culture has been blamed for Brunei‘s slow growth in several fields and is one of the main causes of our society‘s weaknesses, the deputy minister of education said.
It is impossible to produce quality human resources who will help the country to achieve progress in the next two decades, without developing a strong reading culture, said Pengiran Dato Seri Setia Dr Hj Mohammad Pengiran Hj Abd Rahman.
He said that it is evident that our reading culture is low, compared to societies in Japan and Europe where we can find people reading everywhere", during the launch of the nationwide reading month yesterday.
"We often ask how many people make an effort in setting up mini libraries at home, compared to two or three shelves filled with decorative objects worth hundreds and thousands of dollars," he said.
He stressed that parents are the first ones to play a role in educating and training their children so that they are interested in reading, by providing suitable reading materials. Even though our homes may not be spacious, what is important is to fill up a mini-library through a selection of books which are informative and of high quality, he added. Parents were also encouraged to bring their children to the nearest library. Currently, there are seven libraries, including four community libraries throughout the nation.
The deputy minister said that the creation of community libraries is one of the steps undertaken by His Majesty‘s government to strengthen the reading culture among the citizens and residents.
"It is up to the individuals to benefit from the facilities that have been provided," he said. Moreover, the success of academic institutions at all levels relies on libraries that provide relevant reading materials, he said. He pointed out that studies on what books interest students and how to provide a conducive and comfortable environment at libraries can be done to raise the quality of libraries.
Pengiran Dato Hj Mohammad said that reading materials that bring various advantages such as increasing one‘s knowledge and entertaining for the readers should be encouraged, while materials that contain negative elements, including slander and deviant teachings should be avoided.
A number of activities have been lined up for the annual reading month organised by the Language and Literature‘s public libraries, including workshops on library management and achieving youth excellence, as well as a story telling competition.
It is hoped that this reading month initiative will foster a strong reading culture by exposing children to library facilities, said Dr Mataim Bakar, director of Language and Literature Bureau.
Source: www.bruneidirect.com (1 Juni 2007)
