Education Deptt to promote reading habits among school children

Srinagar: The School Education Department is gearing up to promote reading habits among the school children following the revised guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Education (MoE) for utilisation of library grants by the institutions.

The initiative has been taken in line with the National Education Policy (NEP0) 2020 which has emphasised the importance of libraries and books by highlighting various aspects including the development of enjoyable and inspirational books in different languages.

   

The NEP has also focused on the availability and accessibility of books in school and public libraries besides strengthening libraries and building a culture of reading across the country.

“The policy also highlights that steps will be taken to ensure the accessibility of books to disable and differently-abled persons,” an official document reads.

It said that the government, with the help of both public and private sector institutions, would devise strategies to improve the quality and attractiveness of books.

In wake of this, the MoE has notified the guidelines regarding the procedure for identifying, printing, and procuring library books and ways for setting up and managing libraries in schools.

“The schools should list out the various library activities,” read the guidelines.

The guidelines have also mentioned the provisions for promoting a culture of reading and the monitoring mechanisms to be adopted to facilitate optimum utilisation of library grants under Samagra Shiksha.

“The states and union territories, school headmasters, principals, teachers, educational administrators, and students should make reading a joyful experience and eventually improve the learning levels of the children,” read the guidelines.

In this regard, the Principal Secretary School Education Department Bishwajit Kumar is scheduled to convene a meeting with the officers of the department on December 10 regarding the implementation of guidelines for library grants and promoting reading in schools as prescribed by the MoE.

The library grant component was introduced under Samagra Shiksha in 2018-19 to inculcate reading habits among students of all ages and strengthen school libraries in government schools.

The need for a library in every school is recognised by the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and NEP-2020.

“The findings of the National Achievement Survey 2017 have brought out that the school children who have access to a school library and who read storybooks have higher levels of learning,” reads the content of the guidelines issued by the MoE.

The Samagra Shiksha scheme was revised in 2018 to include the provision of library grants to all government schools keeping in view the findings of the National Achievement Level Survey 2017 linking reading to learning achievement.

“The vision of this component is to develop school libraries as learning spaces that nurture lifelong readers and promote reading ability,” read the guidelines.

The schools in J&K were provided library grants by the MoE 2018-19 under the Samagra Shiksha scheme from class 1st to 12th.

The fund for library grants ranges from Rs 5000 in a primary school to Rs 20,000 for a composite senior secondary school.

An Upper Primary School (UPS) gets Rs 13,000 while a high school gets Rs 15,000 library grants.

“This provision was made to strengthen library infrastructure and add newer books to the library collection to perpetuate reading and learning,” the official document reads.

The guidelines issued earlier about utilisation of library grants under the Samagra Shiksha were largely limited to procurement.

“The present guidelines emphasise on the promotion of reading as a whole apart from the development of libraries, selection, and procurement of library books,” the document reads.

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