ONLY one out of seven students is interested in reading books outside the classroom curriculum, according to a schools survey.
The Commercial Press (HK) recently launched a study of school children's reading habits titled ''Research on Hongkong Secondary School Teachers' Promotion of Extra-Curricular Readings to Students''.
The survey was a continuation of the 1991 ''Study on the Behaviour of Hongkong Secondary School Students' in Reading Chinese Extra-curricular Books''.
The previous study had found that 72 per cent of the 1,278 pupils interviewed read because ''they had nothing to do.'' Statistics for the new study were collected at most of the 20 sampling schools approached on the previous occasion. Those interviewed included 19 student representatives and 68 teachers and school librarians.
About 50 per cent of the teachers said their reading promotional effort had produced ''fair'' results, 25.4 per cent claimed it was successful and the rest said it had failed.
The chief reason cited for failure was that the majority of students (60 per cent) found other leisure activities ''more attractive'' than reading. Fifty-three per cent were ''not eager to learn'', while 40 per cent said their studies left them with no time to read.
Almost 80 per cent of the teachers said their schools had offered financial and other support to promote extra-curricular reading.