A recent poll shows that 27 percent of Pakistanis read books apart from those prescribed in the students syllabi and majority of them enjoy informative and religious texts.
The recent poll was conducted by Gallup Pakistan, affiliated with Gallup International Association, among a sample of 2,642 men and women from rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country in December 2008. According to survey, 27 percent say "reading is my habit" and majority of them enjoy informative and religious texts.
The nationally representative survey showed that 27 percent of the respondents read books apart from those prescribed in the students syllabi; 73 percent do not read books. These figures are an encouraging indication in a country with a low literacy rate.
According to the latest Economic Survey (2007-08) the literacy ratio in Pakistan in 2008 is estimated to be 55 percent. But since literacy is defined as the very elementary ability to read a simple sentence, such as a newspaper headline and to write a simple sentence, the figure should be read with caution.
The data shows that a higher percentage (31 percent) of men read books as compared to women (23 percent). It is encouraging to see that among the people who read books, majority of the people (56 percent) claim to at least read once a week or more. Eighteen percent said that they read books once every two weeks and the remaining (22 percent) read books once a month and 4 percent did not give an answer.
Comments
Comments are closed.