An interesting commentary on an interesting directive from the Shanghai government that requires civil servants to read a lot. Translated from China Youth Daily by CDT:
“In order to expand the knowledge base in an all-around way and to promote life-long learning,” the Shanghai municipal government issued a trial directive, about building a study-style (Â≠¶‰π†Âûã) evaluation regime for government agencies. Civil servants in the city, according to the new regime, are each supposed to read 6-12 books a year, and they should spend 7-10.5 hours a week on reading.
And, it’s learned, this reading regime is almost on par with the level of major cities in developed countries.
But, the question is, how can employers know whether their employees read in their free time, and how many books they read? Moreover, people read books differently, fast or slow, or intensively or extensively. How can you measure the efficiency of reading? Imposing a “reading quota” is nothing but adopting a trend. If the government does want to create a reading environment, the best way is to promote talent (‰ªª‰∫∫ÂîØË¥§). The government should encourage studying and reading, but the way to do it shouldn’t be an administrative order, but an incentive system. [Full Text in Chinese]
