NATIONAL BOOK DAY:AN EYE OPENER !

NATIONAL BOOK DAY:AN EYE OPENER !

PROF WAQAR HUSSAIN

     

     

National Book Day was celebrated at Govt T.I. College (Postgraduate) Chenab nagar at 11 am 23rd April 2016 under the instruction of the Punjab government. All the teaching, non-teaching staff, students of MA, MSc, BA, B.Sc and FA, FSc attended the occasion with zeal and zest. The Chief Librarian Talib Hussain showed the library and disclosed that new book of various subjects have been purchased to the tune of 13 lack and now it has become one of the richest library in the Punjab.

      Prof Waqar Hussain, Media In-charge, delivered a key note address and referred a widely circulating SMS: "shoes are adorned in glass show- cases whereas, books are being sold on the foot path."

 He further said that among the last 10 Presidents of US, eight has written books. According to UNESCO report; China is the largest countries in Publication of books followed by USA and Britain 2nd and 3rd position respectively whereas Pakistan comes at 50th position where 3811 books are published annually. Iceland is the only country where every 10th person is a writer of a book. In reading, the World Culture Score disclosed that India comes first in reading list of countries with 10 hours and 42 minutes per person per week while Thailand (9 hr:24 min) and China (8 hr) occupy 2nd and 3rd position respectively. Ironically, in the given list of top 30 reading countries, the name of Pakistan is missing. This is alarming! We should develop reading habit as only the educated nation rules the world. He further said, "Book bring best out of you and boast your knowledge and courage and bashes away bad habits”. He quoted Bulwer-Lytton that "Law dies, Books never". In eBook reading, the USA is leading (30.6%), followed by the Netherlands (29.4%) and the UK (28.1%). This is another area where Pakistani should pay intention as it the cheapest and easiest way to achieve knowledge, if one has access to internet. At present there are 130 million mobile users and 150 million internet users, one can use both for this purpose. He further astonished the audience when he disclosed the paper consumption statistics. He said: “Paper plays such an important role in the present day economic development that its consumption is taken as an index of a country’s progress and prosperity. There was no paper industry in Pakistan at the time of independence in 1947 and the country consumption was 25,000 tons per year and we imported paper from abroad at the cost of 25 million Rupees. Now we have 30 paper industries in private as well as in public sector which are manufacturing pulp and paperboard. But due to high price of paper, its per head consumption is among the lowest in world. Paper consumption in Pakistan is around 5 Kg per person per year. Whereas India is using 500 Kg, Japan 1300 Kg, and USA around 2000 Kg. These figures clearly indicate the index of progress and prosperity along with our educational stature. Above statistics of different fields of education vividly speaks volume and an eye opener for us. We must pay attention on top priority to synchronize them with the international standards to make headway in the comity of nations.

    Principal Zia ul Hasnain Shah advised the students to take benefit of books. He stated that in various countries, there is a "library period" in which students spend time in a library and read books of their choice and then write a report which is duly marked by teachers and its result is incorporated in the result card. We should follow their suite. He said that the Punjab has achieved highest literacy rate and has surpassed the Sindh Province a few years ago.  Pakistan's literacy rate stood at 58 percent; out of which the literacy rate of males is 70 percent followed by 47 percent of females. Similarly the province of Punjab has the highest literacy rate of 60 percent followed by Sindh (59%), KPK (50%) and Balochistan (40%).Punjab is making headway in education and schoolmaster is abroad.