JEDDAH, 27 June 2003 — It has been a tradition for years here for students to tear up their books and throw them away right after the exams, a practice especially puzzling given that the first word in the Qur’an is “Read.”
Are they throwing them away out of frustration? Are they doing it for pleasure? Is it some kind of revenge against the hours and hours they spent studying those books?
It is apparent the students are aware of the cost and effort spent on these books. But it is not clear that they know that some writers have dedicated their lives to create them.
“I did it back when I was in high school, and I only did it to have fun with my friends,” Samar, a high school student, said. Other students threw their books on the streets just because they hated the teacher who had taught the subject.
Students believe it is healthy to do that in order to vent their rage. Those most likely to do it are in the age range between 12 and 18. At this age, hormonal changes and other growing pains make for a volatile state of mind, and we cannot perhaps wholly blame them for their reaction.
However, Faisal Mahmoud, a secondary school student, said he never threw any books away. What is more, he likes to keep them in case he wants to go back to his favorites.
He said in the last three or four years supervisors had been collecting book during exams — not to save them, but to dump them, with the exception of the religious texts, which they burn.
Basmah, another student, said she used to throw books out as a child, but when she went to the US to study, she had a rude awakening.
“I figured out that I had to buy my books for college. The book cost about $120, so there was no way that I would throw them away. It would be like taking $120 out of your wallet and throwing it in the bin.”
When she did not need the books any more, she either gave them to someone who might need them or sold them to a second-hand bookshop.
