KUALA LUMPUR: Despite numerous reading campaigns and book fairs around the country, Malaysians are still not reading enough with only an average of two books per year per person.
But a Year Six pupil from SJKC Taman Connaught here, has the distinction of reading 7,121 books last year.
Lam Xia Juan, 12, yesterday received the Tokoh Anugerah Nilam from the Federal Territories Education Department. The award is given to pupils to encourage the reading habit.
She was among 124 winners who received certificates and trophies in various categories. However, she was not present at the event.
Department director Datin Nawal Salleh presented the awards at a ceremony at Sekolah Menengah Agama Majlis Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan (SMA MAIWP) here.
Some 301 schools took part in the annual competition, which was divided into several categories under Special Education Schools for the Visually-Impaired, Special Education Schools for the Deaf, vernacular schools, primary and secondary school.
Nawal said Nilam was an annual programme to inculcate the reading habit among Malaysians, especially students to make it a part of the Malaysian culture. “We want students to read for knowledge .”
Nawal said the reading habit would help improve the country’s ranking in the Programme for International Student Assessment as Malaysian students scored below the global average of 500 points.
According to the results released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2012, Malaysia scored 421 in Mathematics, 398 in Reading, and 420 in Science. Based on the mean score, Malaysia was placed in the bottom third part of the list, ranking 52 out of 65
countries.