The School Education Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, has issued a government order to streamline reading of non-academic books among government school students in Classes I to VIII and enhance the use of school libraries.
The schedule outlines weekly topics on which books can be provided to students in each class throughout the academic year. The topics range from sports, animals, environment and pollution, self-learning, science, prominent leaders, the importance of education and the uses of the internet, among others, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
It also includes a plan to organise activities such as storytelling sessions, speeches, debates, and group discussions based on the reading material.
This move is in line with school education minister’s announcement that storytelling sessions, reading challenges, book clubs, and theme-based reading weeks would be introduced in government schools to foster curiosity and improve reading proficiency through better use of school libraries.
wThe government order has also directed the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to prepare suitable reading materials for each topic and the Integrated Education Department (Samagra Shiksha) to implement the initiative.
Last year, the School Education Department scaled up its Vasippu Iyakkam (Reading Movement) initiative to cover all government schools across the state. As part of this initiative, each classroom was provided with a collection of over 120 Tamil books tailored to different reading levels, aimed at instilling reading habits among students.
More than 1.3 crore copies of these books were distributed to schools across the state.
Officials from the Elementary Education Department said that this latest initiative is a further refinement of Vasippu, designed to provide more clarity and structure for teachers, according to the report by The New Indian Express.
The Directorate of Elementary Education has prepared a schedule that matches the reading levels of students in each class. SCERT will ensure that appropriate books are available for every topic and will train teachers, if necessary, they added.
