Reading and National Development: What the Universities Can Do*

Abstract

'Reading maketh a full man....' (F. Bacon). 'Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body' (R. Steele). These are just two among several sayings about the value of reading. Universities, which are institutions for contributing to the nation's resource of highly skilled and educated manpower for the nation, must recognize the efficacy of reading in the pursuit of its objectives. As a 'centre of excellence' and learning, the university, in order to facilitate the unfolding of individual potential and talents to the utmost possible, must contrive to provide the opportunities, the incentives, and the environment conducive to the development within its sub-culture, for the art and the habit of reading.

It is an undeniable fact that most undergraduates spend 80-90 per cent of their study time reading. What does this activity entail? How effective is their reading? For what intents and purposes is reading pursued? While reading as an activity is generally desirable, the quality of the outcome of reading will depend a great deal upon the skills and the art of reading as well as upon the selection and judgement of the materials read. Most experts agree that reading at the college or university level goes far beyond the mechanics of 'barking at print', word-calling or word-gazing. Neither is reading merely the passive absorption of symbols, facts and ideas. It is now established that reading involves higher level linguistic and cognitive processes and that the processes of reading range from the developmental-language, cognition, decoding - to the complexities of the hierarchy of proficiency levels of the creative specialists and the performance artists.