BUILDING AN ENRICHED GENERATION THROUGH ENLIGHTENED READING

By ABDULLAH ABU SAYEED Teacher & Chairman,
Bishwo Shahito Kendro (World Literature Centre)
Presented at the 2004 Magsaysay Awardees’ Lecture Series
Magsaysay Center, Manila, 30 August 2004

My dear young friends,

I am particularly happy to be here this afternoon among you all, you for whom life beckons. The vitality, the promise and the resolve that I see in your faces is overpowering, reassuring and indeed, a matter of joy.

Tagore once said that everytime a child is born reassures him that God has not given up on man. It is only appropriate that we strive for the fullest measure of human worth and for the materialisation of the human prospect

It would not be inaccurate if I say that we are all as old as the 21st century. We are inheritors of the collective heritage of mankind and in turn, have a part in this relay race from generation to generation, passing on what we inherit and what we create.

The most authoritative source for human history and heritage is man and the study of human society. Books perhaps are the most efficient repository of human history, sensibility, creativity and knowledge. Books provide us a fascinating window to the past, into the minds of our predecessors and towards the possibilities of the future. Books have a tremendously humanising capacity, so very essential for creating leaders among men and nations.

My dear young friends

Talking of books, I think I should also touch upon the question of education. There are several levels at which education can be approached. At its very basic, we have literacy which imparts functional education. The more expanded formalistic education prepares individuals for the market. While its importance is not to be undermined, it is clear that schools tend to be achievement oriented. At a higher level, education is enrichment oriented; enrichment that fulfils the need for the self-actualisation of the individual as well as the collective actualisation of the community. Enrichment enhances the mind, values and empathy. Enrichment creates great minds, and great minds create great nations

Why the pursuit of enrichment? To create men and women who are dreamers and visionaries, who adhere to high moral values, are enlightened, aware and effective; men and women who can give meaningful leadership in taking the country along the path of progress and prosperity.

The decadence and social dysfunction what we see around us has set in over the years. This owes to several currents and undercurrents that our society has been exposed to, most importantly the impact of conflicting value systems, our colonial legacy and the withering away of traditional institutional safeguards. The biggest casualty has been confidence and resolve at the local and national levels.

We need today virtually an army of enlightened individuals throughout the country and in every field, not by tens but by thousands and hundreds of thousands. And they must come together and act in unison as a cohesive force for causing a national upsurge, for making a difference at all levels

Friends,

How do you create an enlightened society? First, we must learn to believe in ourselves and in our capacity, capacity to engender change, change for the better. In Bangladesh, we established the Bishwo Shahitto Kendro (The World Literature Centre) primarily as a movement to create a conducive environment for nurturing enlightment among the youth. Our objective is to organise them into a national force and to cause an overall enrichment of the minds of successive generations.

It took an effort, because as an underdeveloped nation, there has always been a priority focus on fundamental needs. The state, society and the donor community worked on eradication of illiteracy etc., and it was difficult to sell the urgent need for qualitative development of the human resource. It was difficult moreover to establish the linkage between enrichment and the goals of development. But we succeeded, with our growing army of young men and women—men and women who learnt to believe in themselves. And this caught on — the society started to believe in its collective capacity. This support and patronage has helped us develop Bishwo Shahitto Kendro as a home-grown institution of excellence. We call ourselves the World Literature Centre, but we are not exactly a centre. We are spread throughout the length and breadth of Bangladesh operating from 500 branches.

We started off as a study circle. Books obviously were at the core of this endeavour. The impact was phenomenal. We wanted to enhance our outreach by establishing a library. This had limited success, which prompted us to reach out to potential readers instead of waiting for them to come to us. So we decided to launch an aggressive nation-wide library programme, initially through branches across Bangladesh and subsequently by taking the library on wheels to neighbourhoods

But we are more than just a library programme. The library is a tool, an end in fostering enrichment among young people throughout the country. Let me briefly describe the programme components that come together for promoting enrichment.

First, we have the Nationwide Enrichment Programme, under which activities are run in localities wherever there are two or three schools and one or two colleges. This branch activity is tied to the schools and colleges in the manner of a satellite and developed into something like an enlightened family. The branch brings talented, promising and enthusiastic students from around the locality into the fold of the programme and nurtures them for at least seven years. They read about 175 books suitable to their age and disposition and engage in a lively and many-faceted cultural life. Book reading develops their intellectual faculty while cultural activities enrich their minds. The idea is to give them, at an early age, the opportunity of study and interaction for developing into intellectually advanced men and women.

So far we have set up 500 branches of this programme throughout the country, with a coverage of 100,000 boys and girls. Effort is being made to extend the programme to another 1,000 schools by 2006, of which 250 schools have already been covered involving 18,000 students. When this is done, more than 175,000 students will come under the programme on a regular basis.

Sequential to the Enrichment Programe is the Study Circles Programe. This encompasses university or post-university level students as well as the common self-educators in different cities. The activities of the different study circles apart from book reading on various subjects include guest lectures, films, world music and various cultural activities, tours, as well as social and environmental programmes conducive to the acquisition of higher values and refinements of life.

The virtual absence of a well organised library system in Bangladesh has been a major concern for us. We therefore set up a well-stocked library in Dhaka, and subsequently smaller versions of the library with carefully chosen books in each of the 500 branches of the nation wide enrichment programme. We then introduced mobile library units in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi cities. Eight such libraries are providing book lending services in 250 localities of these four cities and catering to 20,000 readers. The mobile library units are going to be extended to all the district towns covering all the upazilas, small townships and market places along the district road network. These will cover 6,000 points and cater to 300,000 readers. Of special importance to the mobile library users is the space for cultural interaction that is built into the programme so that this, too, actively serves the purpose of enrichment.

At the Kendro, we also offer music and video library facilities. Apart from running a film circle, we offer music, film and art appreciation courses.

The Publication programme of the Kendro provides useful support for the enrichment goals of the Kendro. Under this programme, the Kendro has undertaken publication of Bengali translations of the great books of different languages as well as the Bengali. About two hundred fifty such books have been published so far.

Friends,

At Bishwo Shahitto Kendro we are working to build citizens of tomorrow. Small minds and great nations cannot go together. And therefore, our effort for enrichment. As nations and peoples come closer into a frontierless global village, the challenge assumes not merely national but global relevance. And I am heartened to see you all, future citizens not only of your country but of the world. We must hold hands and collectively strive for excellence in all spheres. Enrichment makes a Bangladeshi, or a Filipino a better and more effective citizen of the world. I am grateful to the Magsaysay Foundation for recognising our humble efforts.

In concluding, I would like to pay tribute to all who shared with me the vision, the ecstasy and the agony of our journey from inception to where we are today.

I thank you. #