School and college girls read more than their male counterparts, an event at Bishwo Sahitto Kendro in Dhaka’s Romona Botmul has indicated.
Girls left the boys behind in attending a reading competition organised under the nationwide ‘Utkarsha’ programme on Friday. They also collected more awards for top readers.
“Girls have outnumbered the boys,” writer-professor Muhammed Zafar Iqbal said during the programme that began at 9am.
“Girls are ahead in reading. Some 57 percent of the 1.9 million readers associated with Bishwo Sahitto Kendro are girls,” Mejbah Uddin Ahmed Sumon, the Kendro’s Deputy Team Leader (Programme), said.
The Kendro has for 37 years been motivating the students of schools and colleges across Bangladesh to read. Utkarsha (excellence) has been its most popular programmes.
Some 200,000 students of 2,000 educational institutions have been included in Utkarsha. Another programme, Pathabhyash Unnayan (development of reading habit), covers 150,000 students of some 10,000 institutions.
The awards for best readers under Utkarsha would be given in four cities of this time.
Earlier in the day, Bishwo Sahitto Kendro founder-professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed inaugurated Dhaka’s programme by releasing multi-coloured balloons.
The students appeared delighted to interact with their favourite novelists, poets and dramatists who provided glimpses into their world of writing.
“I have waited for a year to meet you all. I came here to know what goes through your minds,” professor Iqbal said.
“I brainwash children wherever I go, telling them to read all the time. But after seeing girls read, I have decided to tell the boys only to read.”
Iqbal advised the girls to motivate their brothers to read.
“Tell them to shut off Facebook, television first and read.”
Professor Sayeed underlined the benefits of reading. “Books make the heart blossom; they have a positive effect on life and the society. So read and help develop this country.”
Source: Bd news24
