Summer vacation: It's time to bring school students closer to library

Visakhapatnam: For students who completed final examinations and bid adieu to the previous academic year, a big relief awaits as they usher in summer vacation.

But 'no school' means increased screen time for most children who end up spending long hours indoors.

In a step to cut down screen time, make government school students pick a book and promote reading habit, the School Education Department and Samagra Shiksha are planning to commence 'We love reading' campaign to make students frequent school libraries and flip through non-academic books.  lthough the department initiated the campaign a couple of years before, the one that begins from May 1 will be an improvised version that includes new features.

Apparently, the avenue provides a platform for the students to put forward their imaginary skills, literary creativity, and encourage them to consider picking a book instead of browsing mobile phones as based on the books read, competitions will be held weeks later.

To garner interest among readers, the school education department intends to collaborate with public libraries so that readers could be introduced to diverse genres and read books of their choice. "Every 15 days, books can be exchanged with friends or visiting libraries. In order to encourage intensive reading among students, we are also introducing a 20-book challenge. A data will be maintained on the number of books read and exchanged by the students," shares an official from the school education department.

Apart from highlighting the value of books and combat screen addiction, the initiative also includes a number of activities such as storytelling sessions, story reading competition wherein those reading the book need to shoot videos to keep tabs on the reading progress, story writing competition for Classes III to X in three different categories. Teachers will guide the students in picking the right books based on their interest and age.