Kamil Pasha

Antalya Governor Alaaddin Yüksel asked last week, “Why is it that in this country there are over 400,000 coffeehouses, when there are only 1,500 libraries?” Turkey currently has 800,000 carded library members compared to 36 million members in Mexico. In Turkey, there is one library for every 50,000 citizens, compared to one for every 7,558 people on average in the EU. A survey by the Child Society found that only 8 percent of regular library-goers go there to actually read.

Do Turks prefer to buy their books? Education Ministry Undersecretary Yasar Özgül: “The rate of readers in the population is about 4 percent. This is really very sad and very frustrating.” On average in the developed world an individual spends $100 every year for books, while that same number is only $10 in Turkey. Between the years 1992 and 2004, according to Culture and Tourism Ministry statistics, 150,601 new books were published, an average of 10,750 publications per year. In comparison, according to data from UNESCO, the number of books published in 1999 alone in England was 110,965.

According to data from a 2006 study by the Child Foundation, the percentage of people who regularly read books in Turkey is one per 1,000. 72 percent of the male population over 25 graduated from primary school, while that figure is only 27 percent among females. Nevertheless, girls are better readers. A survey by the Child foundation found that girls are more inclined to take their teachers as role models compared to boys, who choose role models in their families.

According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (RLS) — ranking countries on the literacy of young students — Turkey is ranked 28th out of 35 countries. Only 19 percent of children from Turkey said they have more than 25 books in their homes, while 70 percent of young people in the country responded that they don’t read books at all. 33 Percent of teachers don’t read books regularly, 63 percent read sometimes, 3 percent never. (for summary article, click here)(for Child Foundation study in Turkish, click here)

It is worth noting that reading rates in the US also are abysmally low. Last year I read a statistic (which unfortunately I don’t remember) that a majority of college graduates never again pick up a book. Women in the US buy and read more books than men. It would be interesting to ask the question about whom boys and girls take as role models in the US. The answer off the top of my head would be media figures, but surely that isn’t the only modeling going on.

Tags: Education, Women //