Reading is the foundation of learning

According to the 2018 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), Indian students in Class five can only read textbooks meant for Class two students. The 2021 report showed that only 9.8% of Class three students can read a Class two level text. This signifies that students are not getting the quality of education they deserve. In an effort to improve the situation and promote reading culture, the Department of School Education and Literacy recently launched the ‘100 days of reading campaign’.

The nationwide campaign will continue for 14 weeks starting from January 2022. The campaign will focus on all children from Anganwadis to those in Class eight. Also known as the ‘Padhe Bharath Campaign’, the campaign focuses on making age-appropriate books in all languages available to students.

Culture of reading

Developing a reading habit can build the foundation of learning. Students are motivated to read books independently, which in turn can encourage creativity, critical thinking skills, improve written and spoken vocabulary and the expression of thoughts and ideas.

The Programme for International Student Assessment, a comparative study of students across different countries based on their competency in reading, math and science, placed India 72nd of 73 countries. Officials were of the view that our children lacked the comprehension skills to understand the content of the questionnaire which led to our poor presentation.

The findings of the National Achievement Survey 2017 showed that, “school children who have access to a school library and read story books have higher level of learning skill.” In this regard, the Samagra Shiksha Scheme was revised to include library grants to all government school, to help with learning outcomes.

The Padhe Bharat initiative is also in line with the National Education Policy 2020, which emphasises the role of libraries and books in education.

The policy focuses on the availability and accessibility of books in schools and public libraries to strengthen and build a culture of reading across the country. The vision of this initiative is to develop school libraries as learning spaces that nurture life-long readers and promote reading capabilities. The need for a library in every school was earlier recognised by the National Curriculum Framework (2005), the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (2009).

A good reading habit can promote more holistic learning in our children, exposing them to newer knowledge systems. We must ensure that they have a chance to build this foundation by implementing these policies sincerely.

(The writer is the principal of a school in Udupi, Karnataka)