The Malaysian Goverment target to have Malaysians read atleast 10 books yearly from 2010. Many afforts have been done so that the objective is achieved.
On 31st January 2007, by then Cultural, Art and Heritage Deputy Minister Datuk Wong Kam Hoong said Malaysians only read an average of 5 books a year in 2006. He added that people in Britain and Japan read and average of 20 books a year. So this means that, in terms of reading we are far behind developed countries in the world. No wonder all sorts of problems such as the recent issue of the use of the word Allah becomes such a big problem. This symbolizes the lack of open mind and intellectual knowledge in our people due to the lack of reading.
The Malay Mail on August 27 2006 carried out by the National Statistics Department looked into local reading habits. What was learnt is that more than half of the 60,441 odd Malaysians surveyed read less than seven pages a day. Those at the age of 10 years and above read about two books a year (the figure excludes text books for students and books that are work-related for working adults). Also shocking is that most of those who read books and magazines, read less than three hours a week. The survey also showed that 55 per cent of those aged 10 to 24, read books, compared to 39 per cent within the 25 to 56 age bracket. Only six per cent are those aged 57 and above.
Reading is not even the favourite pastime of Malaysians as most prefer to watch television and video. I guess our people are just too lazy to read so they prefer watching and listening. Most Malaysians read in Bahasa Melayu, followed by English. Reading in Jawi comes third and finally, Mandarin. This explains our low standard of English speaking, writing and understanding. In fact, certain parties are just too naive that they think reading english will destroy our mother tounge.
Of the total number of respondents, 60 per cent were aged 10 years old and above and 99.9 per cent of them had formal education. Two books a year is the figure that the last survey in 1996 came up with, and in 2006 the figure increased slightly. Still, there is nothing to be proud of.
Surprisingly, MPH and Borders reported increasing sales and the book business locally is apparently worth two billion ringgit a year. Apparently, Malaysians have the habit of buying books but not reading it!
Posted by,
Mohamad Ridzlan Bin Mohd Sidek,
A128230.
Reading habit among Malaysians is very poor based on the data shown that Mlaysians read average fo two books a year. Futhermore,the data also shown that only 29% Malaysians use library. other 71% don't go to the library. In the library, there have many reading material that we can read. Foe example, academic books. we can use as a knowledge and can practise in our life.
ReplyDeletenurfarrahin bte ador
A124651
in my opinion, the reason local book businesses are worth two billion ringgit a year is because books in Malaysia are expensive. so if each person buys only one book, and each book cost like, let's say an average of RM 60, then its logical to have sales worth billions of ringgit but to have the quantity of books bought from people to be only one. so i think one of the reasons Malaysians don't read books is because it is expensive, whereas for those who live in the outskirts of town, don't have access to a good bookshop or a library.
ReplyDeleteMardhiyah Amirudin
A126958
Im pretty embarrassed by the stats. From 1996 to 2006, we only manage to record a slight increase in reading. Its obviously still far below par.
ReplyDeleteThe first sentence of this post went 'The Malaysian Goverment target to have Malaysians read atleast 10 books yearly from 2010'. So starting from now many efforts should have been made. Any we are aware of? Hmmmm. I wonder.
Mohd Akif Farhan
A126895
i agree with mardhiyah that books in Malaysia are expensive. Especially english books. i love to read. Sometime i want to read english books such as novel. but the price are very expensive. Then i decided to borrow in library. But for me, i like to buy a book and after i read i can keep it. So, i can read again and again when i want.
ReplyDeleteprice is not the issue if it is quality. it is a pleasure for those who love to read. one more thing, there is no evidence to show that malaysians prefer to buy but not read. i'm sure that someone will even read the title of a book before buying..hehe
ReplyDeleteyes. i agree with Asmahani. In my opinion, i think it is a waste if people buy books without reading them. It is better if they did not buy the book at all. Books are meant to be read not to be display. =D
ReplyDeleteHallo,
ReplyDeleteIm Khairul, currently doing my final year project on the subject of reading habit.
first of all i would like to say that as a student I do believe that malaysian reading habit is not as good as the develop countries.
Its even evident from pictures on google search (if you search pictures from other developed countries you can find a lot of people reading in public places but the situation doesn't apply to pictures from malaysia).
Basically driven by an article written by Christopher Teh, my study wishes to look upon the reading habit of future teachers. But often times i find hard times finding the latest statistics on Malaysian reading habit.
Does this mean that our government or ministry of education dont really focus on reading habit of malaysian?
-Just a curious turtle~
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