DPS becomes degree college

DPS becomes degree college
Lahore: Board of Governors, Divisional Public School Model Town, has approved the proposal of giving degree college status to the prestigious educational institution.

In a BoG meeting chaired by Commissioner Lahore Nadeem Hassan Asif, senior member Javed Yousaf presented the proposal of giving degree college status to the DPS.

After unanimous approval from the BoG, Nadeem Hassan Asif asked the Principal DPS to complete necessary paper work and submit recommendation of the BoG to his office at the earliest. The Commissioner would forward the proposal to the Punjab Government for further action. The nation

Book reading habit takes blow as IT takes over world
Lahore: Globalisation and revolution in the field of information technology (IT) has reduced the habit of book reading across the globe.

In our country, there was a time when the habit of book reading was very popular and most of the people used to spend their free time reading books.

Elders, youth and children were often seen reading books under streetlights or even in the light of lamps and candles in old times. School and public libraries encouraged and cultivated the habit of reading. Book lovers used to gift books to friends and beloved ones while collection of good books also remained a popular hobby amongst people.

However, then dawned the era of technology in which people preferred watching television or using the Internet instead of reading books and indulging in other similar literary activities.

Book reading has now become obsolete and the Internet culture is becoming more and more popular, also giving an increase to the trend of reading soft copies or e-books of printed books. The emergence of e-media and blurring of traditional media has weakened the bond between books and their readers.

Easy accessibility, large numbers of e-versions of books on very nominal fee, provision of unlimited access to e-books with facility of downloading them on desktops for references, are the major factors that had contributed in decreasing the book reading trend.

According to a survey, one among every four adults does not prefer reading books.

Separately, online book selling, online libraries and online book rental services are gaining popularity in Pakistan nowadays.

A large number of websites are available on the Internet which provide information on books, their authors and prices.

Online rental services are also gaining popularity since they offer the books to the readers at nominal rates as compared to the expensive printed form of the same books.

Owner of an online rental services website, Usman Siddiqui said that due to a marked decrease in the reading habit amongst people, he and his team members decided to provide books online at cheap rates.

Usman said that currently, 40,000 books are available on his website for sale. He said that he had started the website with only 50 books and now more than 25,000 books had been sold through it.

Globalisation and digitalisation cannot be alone blamed for the decrease in the trend of book reading. There are several other factors, including lack of public libraries, quality content, quality writers, book fairs, reading clubs, writing competitions, encouragement at school level to read books other than course books.

Separately, The National Book Foundation (NBF) had also been formed to promote the book reading culture in the country. However, the foundation was unable to achieve its goals because of the lack of interest on part of the citizens.

Nevertheless, the foundation's officials claimed that their efforts are yielding positive results as the number of book readers had increased in the recent years.

According to the NBF's website, books are provided to members at 50 percent discount across 47 important cities. The remaining 50 percent is paid by the NBF authorities. Similarly, books can also be obtained on 55 percent discount from NBF bookshops under this scheme.

Experts says that the need of the times is that book clubs should be formed on a large scale, reading circles should be encouraged, young graduates and high school students should take out time and encourage younger ones to indulge in literary activities. Daily times