Reading is one fine habit when one can spend hours in the company of books and travel to far away lands. But alas, unlike earlier when there were no televisions or computers, reading was a primary leisure activity, today we have so many distractions that not many feel passionate about it.
But in an effort to inculcate reading habits among students, the CBSE has recommended a new reading list for students of Classes 5 to 12, which for the first time includes works of several Indian authors. Though the list includes the Harry Potter series for Classes 7 and 8, and Moby Dick for Classes 9 and 10, students will be able to savour works by Satyajit Ray, R.K. Narayan, Sudha Murthy, Ismat Chughtai and APJ Abdul Kalam. Schools have also been given the freedom to prepare book lists, including works in vernacular languages, as well as Hindi.
Think tanks in the city feel that the move will not only bring a sea change in the reading pattern of the nation, but will also give a fillip to Indian writing. Author Anjana Basu, who has written several books for children, feels, “Children need to be indoctrinated into stories at an earlier age, first gently through the spoken and then through the written word.”
Students sitting for the ICSE Board always had the privilege of delving into the works of great writers like Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Rabindranath Tagore, Rudyard Kipling, but for CBSE students, who could only appreciate sporadic fragments in the form of a few poems or short stories by various literary geniuses, it will be a big shift.
Law student Neha Aggarwal used to be a voracious student, before other compulsions gradually drifted her away from reading. She says that a child’s schooling years make a reader or a non-reader out of him/her. “Schools ought to encourage children and organise reading sessions. However, the same should not be thrust upon a child’s already burgeoning curriculum, but should be made a part of schooling right from the very formative years. Any later, and the child is already addicted to the Internet and other such distractions,” she adds.
Anything done via schools to encourage students to read on varied subjects is a positive advance towards understanding not only the world one lives in, but also the eternal concepts of white, black and grey. According to author Raksha Bharadia, mother of two teenagers, books are a great medium to allow children to achieve their own understanding of the great laws of nature and what better platform to get them started than as school initiatives, provided they select books that are interesting enough to sustain their interest for the sake of reading than anything else.
She says, “As a writer, I definitely believe that in this world of Facebook and social networking sites where the attention span and interest in the outside world is dipping to a scary level, reading is required for a disciplined mind. And introduction of Indian authors will familiarise students to the sounds and smells of our own culture.” Seconds Rahul Khandelwal, who has written workbooks for state-run schools in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. He says, “Harry Potters are fine, but if an Indian author mentions Red Fort or Khan Market, students will be able to connect better with them and this will help generate their interest in studies. One can actually impart lessons in history through fiction.”