The Government of India (GoI) has shifted its focus on the capacity building of teachers under various interventions of the New Education Policy (NEP)-2020 for making a library culture in the schools.
The GoI has stated that the teachers should be oriented regularly on the objectives and aspects of the library along with engagement of children through reading activities.
“It is also important that the teachers learn to manage the library to facilitate the children’s reading,” the document reads.
The focus of the teacher’s capacity building should be on managing the library and engaging the children with books besides understanding the natural learning environments through experiential methods.
“Understanding how the oral and spoken language lays the foundation for early reading and writing with development of comprehension including multilingual capabilities,” the document reads.
The NEP-2020 has stressed that the school heads should simultaneously be encouraged to support the library along with the face-to-face professional development programmes.
“Library management manuals should be developed which will also help the schools in further supporting the new teachers and other staff,” the document reads.
The NEP-2020 has also laid focus on community involvement to raise the community awareness and promote community ownership on reading culture to ensure long-term impact and sustainability.
“This can broadly be done through community participation and contributions,” the document reads.
The NEP has focused on organizing collaborative community-wide reading events and literacy fairs involving parents and community members.
“The schools should organize monthly story-telling or reading sessions in schools by involving parents and community members. Parents should be encouraged to read to their children at home, wherever feasible,” the document reads.
The schools are supposed to facilitate scheduled meetings on a regular basis with families and community members to help promote the active use of a library.
“Connecting reading and writing with parents, community life, festivals, current events and engagement with local knowledge needs,” the document reads.
The NEP-2020 has focused on facilitating crowd-sourcing contributions in kind for library development such as books, furniture, lamps, lights, fan and other accessories.
“Language Festivals reinforce the spirit Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat. The key resources in this programme are the children themselves, who are adept at learning new languages and are very sensitive to the nuances of accents and dialects,” the document reads.
The NEP has stated that children step into a world of languages that makes them aware of their own language abilities and encourages them to learn more about their heritage and about the people who surround them.
“Holding interactive games, storytelling and story writing, language festivals can promote reading culture among the children,” it states.
The NEP-2020 has also focused on encouraging voluntary participation stating that the initiative will boost community and private sector involvement in government-run elementary schools.