Why children need to cultivate the reading habit

New Delhi: “Not only do many children lack reading skills, we also lack good materials which can make children interested in reading,” Saktibrata Sen, Program Director, Room to Read, said at Times Litfest 2018.Sen was speaking at a session on inculcating the reading habit among children, presented by Room to Read. The session was moderated by columnist Jaya Bhattacharji Rose. Educator Sonya Philip said that a good educator should know how to inculcate the habit of reading among children. “Though I am an educator and work with children daily, I realised my own son doesn’t read. It was that struggle which led me to go back to university and learn how do children learn to read. Every child can be a reader if the educator knows how to make a child fond of reading,” said Philip, who regards reading as a life skill. Shailendra Sharma, principal advisor to director of education, Government of Delhi, stressed the importance of reading and right schooling. “Since only 2002, we saw a massive surge in enrolment of schools. It is very critical to develop the habit of reading among a student,” said Sharma.Manisha Chaudhary, associated with publishing since 1980s and founder of Manan Books, highlighted the difference in the quality of education among students in India. She said, "Access to good education is very much needed for every single child. Being a publisher, I thought about this and I try to publish books in multiple languages so that a child can learn in one's mother tongue. This is needed to bring equity in education.”