Make books more accessible

Debbie Jacob

LAST WEEK I painted half of a picture when I pleaded my case for supporting Caribbean writers who are getting excellent regional and international publishers. We need to encourage more reading and public support of Caribbean literature, but we also need the Government's support to develop a reading culture that supports Caribbean literature.

The best place to start would be for the Government to remove all costs – except shipping – from all Caribbean books entering this country. There should be no VAT, no duty – no tax of any kind – on books by our regional authors.

Writers who manage to attract reputable foreign publishers deserve support for the recognition they bring to this country. It’s invaluable positive publicity and should not be penalised by exorbitant import taxes.

Few writers can make a living from writing books and the costs for bookstores to import literature makes it difficult to keep books in stock continuously. Writing and selling books are mostly low-profit labours of love – not huge money-making ventures.

Most bookstores get a 20 per cent discount for buying books directly from publishers and publishers give up to a 40 per cent discount to authors for purchasing their own work. Still, the import costs are more than the value of the book, and they make books expensive. That’s not right – especially considering the benefits of books to society.

Reading is our salvation. It doesn’t promote confrontation. It creates empathy. It’s cheaper to engage students in school with a literature-driven curriculum that fits their academic and personal needs and interests than to deal with dropouts who struggle to survive and turn to crime.

Confident, articulate students who read aren’t prone to having confrontations with the police. They deal better with anger, frustration and self-esteem and poor communication, and if the Government drops the current charges on imported books we could get more literature into more people’s hands.

All of these claims about the significance of reading are backed up by continuous academic and psychological studies, so why does the Government ignore this? Why doesn't the Government see the wisdom in making books cheap enough for everyone to afford? Why isn’t the Ministry of Education creating a culture of readers in schools, and why isn’t the ministry doing the work that NGOs are doing?

People and organisations like Paula Lucie-Smith and ALTA or Suzette Cadiz and Let’s Read do the work down in the trenches to develop readers in this country. It’s the work the Government should be doing.

ALTA empowers people in the culture of poverty by teaching them to read. Let’s Read develops elementary school libraries handling everything from creating library spaces to stocking libraries with books – a job that the Ministry of Education should prioritise.

Countless studies going back to the 1950s show the importance of reading as a foundation for education, so why doesn’t the Ministry of Education have a library in every elementary school? For years our public library system, NALIS, has struggled with a budget to buy books for its libraries or the school libraries it runs. Libraries are developing gaping holes in the canon of literature it should have, and they are not able to support Caribbean literature as they should be doing.

How can the Government ignore our libraries and their invaluable contributions to society? If the Government wants articulate, happy, respectful, pride-driven students – and adults – who don’t turn to gangs, then it needs to address reading. It needs to recognise the textbook crisis in this country. Textbooks are generally boring and didactic. They should be replaced by more exciting and meaningful literature from reputable publishers that address the themes, conflicts and values that resonate with students and encourage more critical thinking skills.

We need Caribbean books in our classrooms that create passionate discussions, inspire students to think deeply and develop the desire to read, write and become lifelong learners. We need diversity and creative autonomy for teachers to choose the books that engage their students. The Government’s job should be to nudge education into the future rather than support the anachronistic and neo-colonialist no-man’s land it currently occupies.

The NGC Bocas Lit Fest highlights the contributions of Caribbean writers in its annual literary festival, but the Government needs to do its share in recognising our outstanding writers bringing popular and critical acclaim abroad to our literature.

A good start is for the Government to publicly acknowledge the importance of reading and offer incentives and concessions to make books more accessible to everyone. This is not a handout. It’s an investment in the people of this country and a sign that we support an independent, critical-thinking nation that values the positive contributions of our Caribbean writers.