SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Nov 18: The National Education Policy 2020 has mentioned the importance of textbooks, and has called for the development of reading habits in children from a young age for overall development. NEP also talks about providing interesting and inspirational children’s literature in Indian and local languages and a large number of books in schools and local libraries for students of all levels.
However, as per a recent report called the UDIS+ 2021-22, the Union Ministry of Education has claimed that despite the presence of libraries, book corners, reading nooks and more, Jharkhand has only 536 books available on average in schools (government and non-government) as compared to the national average of 713.
According to the report, an average of 713 books are available for children to read in the library, book bank and reading corner of government and non-government schools of the country. Despite this, Jharkhand is still in a better position than 15 other states in terms of the availability of books.
The report mentions that libraries, book banks or reading corners are available in more than 90 percent of schools of in the state, but the number of books is far less. Libraries, book banks or reading corners are available in 93.9 percent of schools in Jharkhand, whereas only 87.3 percent of schools in the country have this facility.
Notably, almost every year books are purchased from the funds of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan in the library of government schools of the state. Although there was no proper arrangement for the maintenance of books in the library of these schools, even when last year all the schools were allocated funds to buy almirahs etc.
Talking about the national average, four books are available for every five children in the school library. Meanwhile, only three books are available in the libraries of schools in Jharkhand. A total of 79,70,750 children are enrolled in the schools of Jharkhand. A total of 2,40,27,510 books are available in the library of these schools. On the other hand, there are 26,52,35,30 children enrolled in schools all over the nation, while 1,06,23,99,262 books are available in the school libraries.
States with a lower average than Jharkhand, in case of a number of books available, include Meghalaya (95), Mizoram (155), Madhya Pradesh (271), Tripura (281), Bihar (291), Jammu Kashmir (325), Uttar Pradesh (379), Nagaland (390), Manipur (341), Arunachal Pradesh (341), Assam (446), West Bengal (446), Sikkim (456), Telangana (480), and Chhattisgarh (514).
On an average more than one thousand books are available in the libraries of many states. The highest average is that of Chandigarh, where a total of 8,524 books are available in schools on an average. Similarly, schools in Delhi have an average of 5,676; Andhra Pradesh has 4,279; Goa has 2,613; Kerala has 2,580; Haryana has 1,982; Karnataka has 1,547; Punjab has 1,509; Tamil Nadu has 1,270; while 1, 128 in Maharashtra and 1039 books are available in schools in Gujarat on an average.
On the other hand, when questioned in this regard, the newly posted Secretary of the School Education and Literacy Department K Ravi Kumar said that though he had no prior knowledge of the report, he would work to better the numbers.
