Officials of Ganjam district in Odisha have taken an initiative to popularise the library movement by donating books to various schools.
District Collector Prem Chandra Chaudhary had earlier asked people to gift books to schools instead of giving bouquets and diaries on the New Year, District Education Officer (DEO) Sanatan Panda said. As part of the initiative, Chaudhary had donated 120 books in Odia, English and Hindi to an upper primary school at Puti Gopalpur last week. Similarly, block development officers of Purushottampur and Sheragada gave away books to two primary schools at Tarinipalli and Sheragada respectively. Several other officers have also expressed willingness to donate books to nearby government-run schools.
"We hope the initiative will strengthen the ongoing library movement that started about two years ago in the district," the DEO said. As part of the library movement in the district, the schools were asked to introduce DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) in 2015. Under the programme, schools were told to allot at least one period every week for the children to read books other than their textbooks. The programme was also part of the national curriculum framework to inculcate a love for books among the students.
The district had received the National Award for Innovation in Educational Administration for library movement from MHRD in December 2015.