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Challenges galore for government school libraries
The budget to purchase new books was last issued in September 2021, librarians at various government schools say that instead of focusing on student-friendly quality books, the department instructed them to buy books that are available at a highly discounted rate
Even as the New Education Policy aims at inculcating reading habits among students through school libraries, government school libraries lag to achieve the same by a fair margin. Without any dedicated period for the library as a part of the school curriculum, librarians are struggling to attract students.
While the budget to purchase new books was last issued in September 2021, librarians at various schools say that instead of focusing on student-friendly quality books, the department instructed them to buy books that are available at a highly discounted rate.
The department had issued a fund of ₹20,000 for upper primary schools and ₹15,000 for primary schools to spend only on the purchase of books. However, teachers rued that no funds have been granted to develop the infrastructure of libraries.
A librarian requesting anonymity said librarians are given various other duties and tasks which affect their work. She added that due to the lack of classrooms, libraries have been turned into Edusat rooms. She said as students are more tilted towards eBooks, a major infrastructural upgrade is required where computers should be provided.
A government school teacher said, “We have instructed language teachers to take one period per week in the library where students can learn about various books of different genres and develop a reading habit.”
Library langars fail to serve purpose
As per the directions of the state education department, government schools organised library langars in July 2021 to make books widely available for students and their parents. The government schools had set up stalls at gurdwaras, temples and Rose Garden to give library books to students to inculcate reading habits among them.
As per official figures, over 4,00,000 books were distributed in the district. A librarian said that only 60% of the borrowed books were returned. “Our school faced a deficit of nearly 1,000 books as people did not return the books that they had borrowed,” she added.
“We had issued nearly 2,500 books, the ones borrowed by the students came back but the others did not return the books which were supposed to be returned within 30 days,” she added.
As primary schools suffered from the shortage of rooms due to increased student strength, the schools have created reading corners outside the classrooms. Teachers said funds for separate rooms and other infrastructure should be provided to make the school libraries fully effective.
Harjit Singh, deputy education officer (secondary), said, “A composite grant for the maintenance and infrastructure at schools is issued every year which can be utilised for library-related infrastructure.” He said students visited the library during the zero period.
