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Head teacher sets up library at govt primary school in U.P.’s Gorakhpur
The library has 11,000 books that are useful for students of class 1 to 12. The library has a separate section for story books too, said head teacher of Tilauli government primary school Gorakhpur
A mini village library having thousands of books has been established at the government primary school, Tilauli, in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district. Head teacher of the school Alpa Nigam took the initiative and raised ₹1.2 lakh through crowdfunding to set up the library which is open not for students but for general public too.
After the thought struck the head teacher, she converted one of the school rooms for the purpose. “Presently the library has 11,000 books that are useful for students of class 1 to 12. The library has a separate section for story books too. Both our present and former students visit here,” she said.
Nigam, who has been teaching in this school since 2010, carried out a drive called ‘Daan Utsav’ (donate a book campaign) wherein several people happily donated their books for the library. “The National Book Trust also gave a number of books for the library,” she said.
The head teacher is extremely happy to see the kind of support she got from some friends and well-wishers. “This library will cater to the needs of students as well as the youth,” she said.
“I got support from gram pradhan Kanchan Yadav and commissioner Ravi Kumar NG for this task,” Nigam said. According to her, the special thing is that the library has been established keeping all age groups in mind. It is open for schoolchildren, alumni, parents and others.
Regarding the selection of books for the library, Nigam said she took special care of it. A lot of thought process had gone into what type of books should be made available to children, she added.
“Reading is a skill that requires constant practice. Research suggests that the availability of literature of choice for children is an important factor in developing reading skills. Research says that when children are given the freedom to read books of their choice, it develops a lot of interest among them. They start taking pleasure in it,” the head teacher said.
