PVPF 2024

India Is Witnessing a Decline in Reading Books in Higher Education

on Oct 11, 2022

The World Culture Score index has previously shown that India takes satisfaction in having the highest weekly time spent per person on reading (10.42 hours), followed by Thailand, China, the Philippines, Egypt, and so on.

The propensity of Indians to seek information through official and informal educational methods, which results in strong reading habits, is linked to the majority of their reading time. Despite the statistics showing a lot of reading time, pupils in the current educational system have less of an inclination to read books.

Self-learning is positioned in the later stage of the stratified education system, which is divided into elementary, secondary, and higher education, and it is interesting to explore it.

Higher education meets the learning demands of relatively mature students by transferring information and skills to them in accordance with the relevant program of study. The standards for students learning levels are established by the rigorousness of classroom interactions and testing processes. Any learning deficit is certain to have long-term effects in the shape of inadequately trained human resources, which may have constraints in supporting and advancing civilizational progress.

The Covid-19 epidemic had, sadly, forced a switch from offline to online modes of education and increased reliance on digital content exchange during the past two years.

But because of the current digital gap and different socio-economic situations, not everyone has access to e-books, which has restricted the opportunity for reading sound information. Additionally, the simplicity of passing the exam utilizing the digital materials offered by professors gave pupils the confidence to forego reading from other books.

Finding the consequences and causes of learning poverty is a moot question, so let's avoid talking about how adequate or inadequate the notes and study materials used in class are. The lack of interest in reading books, even if it may be one of many causes of learning poverty, seems to be a serious problem that needs to be discussed, particularly in the higher education sector.

The chalk-and-talk teaching approach is gradually fading from favor throughout the nation's educational system. Every level of the educational system's classrooms is including the use of pre-made PowerPoint presentations and digital information delivered through interactive whiteboards with technology, although this practice is widespread in higher education.

Teachers benefit greatly from the widespread use of electronic tools in the classroom, which also makes it easier for people to get better on- and off-screen information. Students typically view this text as being adequate learning material and choose not to read it anymore. This has accelerated the tendency to forgo reading books to finish learning about the relevant subjects.

Except for those students who are genuinely interested in learning the subjects extensively, the bulk of students searches for a way to complete their academic needs with the least amount of reading. To guarantee that all students have access to learning materials, instructors and institutional governance do their utmost to distribute virtually complete information to students in a variety of ways.

The professors provide the students with textbooks and reference materials, but they do not simultaneously share pertinent study information for each topic, which discourages students from reading books fully. Although students seldom read textbooks to grasp deeper ideas, they do utilize them for math and to practice problem-solving by using the solutions provided.

The majority of professors typically do not provide difficult, thorough, or sophisticated tasks for the students to complete in class, tutorials, assignments, etc., which encourages complacency with the laborious reading. In such a scenario, the teachers are equally accountable for conducting them in-class interactions inattentively without fully planning them.

It should go without saying that teachers have the power to engage students and pique their interest in the things they are teaching. The lack of excitement in the classroom, the simultaneous availability of subject teacher-tailored learning materials like notes, handouts, PowerPoint presentations, excerpts from books, etc., and the simple accessibility to digital e-content almost freely all contribute to students' disinterest in attending class.

In addition to careless class management, the instruments used to measure students' learning levels do stress the need for deep learning. The examination question paper (decreasing)'s rigor, lack of innovation in the questions, and standard of questions are unable to adequately challenge the pupils. Hubris results from creating exam papers with questions of low and medium complexity. Simple test questions spread a lack of seriousness toward academic pursuits and systematically infect learning poverty.

The overall education system sinks into mediocrity as a result of the decreasing emphasis on the teaching-learning-evaluation process in higher education, where such graduates and postgraduates with limited learning become its guardians as instructors. This starts a vicious cycle where less-literate teachers educate pupils who eventually drop out without receiving a deeper education, degrading the system as a whole.

The low employability of a significant portion of graduates and postgraduates leaving the nation's educational system is a reflection of the learning poverty in that region. It is now well acknowledged that those with formal degrees often struggle to live up to the standards set by their profession.

Even if that isn't always the case, the majority of the higher education industry finds it to be concerning.

This view is furthered by the dismal socioeconomic conditions that force highly educated people to line up for lower stratum positions, and the higher education system is harshly criticized for failing to deliver high-quality education. Importantly, the circumstances show that the more individualized facilitation of personalized learning information in the abbreviated and crisp form is encouraging students' parasitic natures and reducing their desire to study more deeply about certain domains.

The problem has gotten worse as a result of the ranking systems, and institutional rankings also serve as a barometer for educational quality.

In light of the aforementioned, there is continued discussion on teaching special-purpose skill training to students pursuing higher education for their increased utility. Unquestionably, the goal of the education system is to develop a pool of qualified human resources with the necessary skill sets.

This goal is shared by the education system at all levels, including elementary, secondary, and higher education. The elementary school system must put more emphasis on the lack of required soft skills so that higher levels of the education system may instill the necessary competencies and significant information.

Everyone involved in the nation's higher education system has to take into account students' risky propensity to avoid reading books but yet perform well on exams despite knowledge gaps.

To encourage students to read quality texts on the assigned topics in addition to the digital e-content and pre-made learning materials, teachers must commit to making their classroom interactions engaging, engaging, and difficult. The learning assessment tools must also be created in a way that encourages students to engage in deep learning so that the higher education system can fulfill its sacred duty of knowledge production.