Srinagar, Jan 10: The State Council of Education Research and Trainings (SCERT) has started a 100-day reading campaign from January 10.
The Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India (GoI) has launched a 100-day (14 weeks) Reading Campaign – Padhe Bharat scheme throughout the country with a purpose to achieve the aims and objectives of the National Mission for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) called NIPUN Bharat Mission.
The main motive of the initiative is to inculcate the habit of reading among children from the age group of 3-9 years.
In this regard, the SCERT J&K has nominated two Nodal Officers for the effective implementation of the Reading Campaign in J&K.
“The campaign will start from January 10 and a comprehensive 14 weeks calendar has been prepared for the implementation of the campaign. The calendar needs to be disseminated amongst all the stakeholders,” reads an official communication issued by JKSCERT.
The Nodal Officers have been entrusted to ensure the implementation of the activity calendar in letter and spirit across J&K by actively involving all the concerned stakeholders.
The official document reads that the school children are left unprepared for the complexities of the curriculum beyond their grade in absence of foundational skills like reading with comprehension, writing, and doing basic mathematics operations.
“The reading campaign has been started to achieve the goals of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN),” the document reads.
As per the official document, the school children from pre-primary to class 8th will be part of the campaign that will be categorised into different groups of students.
“The reading campaign will be organised for 100 days (14 weeks) starting from January 2022 to April 2022,” the document reads.
The Reading Campaign aims at having the participation of all stakeholders at the J&K-level including children, teachers, parents, community, and educational administrators.
“The campaign will continue for 14 weeks from January and one activity per week per group will be conducted. The learning outcomes to be achieved by this campaign are provided in the activity calendar prepared by the SCERT,” the document reads.
The class-wise activity calendar has been prepared by the SCERT which needs to be followed by the children with the help of teachers, parents, peers, siblings, or other family members.
“To make the campaign effective, there will be only one activity per week so that the children can repeat the activity in the given week,” the document reads.
Notably, the DSEL has already conveyed to J&K to take full advantage of the initiative and ensure that 100 percent of books available in school libraries are issued to students.
The Centre has focused on the capacity building of teachers under various interventions of the New Education Policy (NEP)-2020 for making a library culture in the schools.
Meanwhile, the SCERT stressed having an intensive awareness drive for parents, teachers, students, community members, and local bodies to have active participation in reading campaigns.
“Storytelling sessions at J&K-level should be held by eminent personalities besides other sessions by parents and grandparents will be encouraged as well,” the SCERT in a document said.