Islamabad-Lack of parents’ attention adversely affect the study habits of their children and proving to be a major dilemma.

A report aired by a private news channel said, in the absence of parents’ encouragement, children at present do not realize the significance of reading and they are rarely found motivation to read.

Several academicians expressed concern over the drop in reading habit among youth while asking parents and teachers to encourage them to read good books which would enhance their knowledge. Research scholar, Muhammad Husnain, said nowadays, parents are so much busy in their lives and do not find enough time to concentrate on what their child is studying in school. Focusing further on child’s reading habits is a matter of later debate.

Head of the English Language Centre (ELC), Dr Muhammad Sheeraz said excessive use of internet has also played a key role in this decline and has taken over books, newspapers and magazines. Apart from that, it is quite very unfortunate that today majority of schools, colleges and universities also do not focus on encouraging their students to read, Muhammad Sheeraz said.

Modern technologies like Tablets and Smart phones can attract children to read as touch screens provide children with an enjoyable experience where they can zoom in and zoom out pictures within the text, IT Expert Mudasir Waqas suggested.Dr Javed Iqbal said that the problem-ridden world of today was keeping away the new generation from their heritage, culture and literature.

Shahid Khan, a lecturer at the Department of Journalism, says with the revolution in technology reading habits are changing across the globe.  He said parents and children often faced the seductive distractions of modern life, such as televisions, mobile phones and video games.

The trick is to balance, to try to make sure that time is apportioned to sport, family and hobbies,” he said. “Parents and teachers play a big role in teaching children this balance. We always ask parents how often they read to their children really interact around a book and not just stick a device in their hands.”

“The family is the root of making reading a daily habit,” he said, adding that society also has an important role to play. “We need initiatives to instil reading, to make it a habit for every day.

Raja Umer, a National University of Modern Languages student, said, “We cannot blame only digitalized era for this declining trend; there are several other issues including lack of public libraries and writing competitions, lack of encouragement at school level to read books other than course books.”