Mumbai: Only four of the 36 districts in the State organised book fairs last year, despite getting funding from the State, RTI applications have found.
Every year, the Central government allots Rs. 1 lakh to each district in Maharashtra to organise an education fair meant to inculcate reading habits in children. In 2013-14, the very first year after launch of this scheme in Maharashtra, 23 districts hosted book fairs.
But things slackened the very next year, Right to Information (RTI) queries by Anil Bornare of the Shikshak Parishad, a state teachers’ organisation, has revealed.
In 2014-15, only four districts bothered to organise the book fair, while details of events in 2015-16 were not available.
The funds are provided by the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shikshan Abhiyaan (RMSA), a Union Human Resource Development Ministry initiative meant to improve the quality of secondary school education across the country.
Srinivas Shastri, the State coordinator of the RMSA project with the Maharashtra government, has now sought an explanation from each of the district education officials for the lapses, citing complaints about non-implementation of the scheme.
“Book fairs are a noble initiative and are very crucial for inculcating reading habits among students. Such fairs are not just about reading books, but also host various literary events, like poetry recitations and storytelling. Apart from exposing children to a wide variety of books, most of the books are sourced from the National Book Trust, and are available at very affordable rates to children. Some schools even purchase books in bulk and provide them to their students. Students and librarians from various schools attend such fairs,” said Mr. Bornare.
He added that though Mumbai had organised a very good education fair, it was really unfortunate that despite availability of financial assisatance, there is reluctance to set the ball rolling on such good schemes across the State.
Mr. Bornare has written to the State government seeking action against the officials responsible. He also demanded that a committee be set up to organise such fairs on a regular basis.
Ulhas Wadodkar, president of the Mumbai unit of Shikshak Parishad, said, “Though the idea is noble, many a times such book fairs end up becoming official functions. There is also a disconnect between the kind of books students are interested in, and the kind of books available at such fairs. Unless teachers take a personal initiative, things will not move. In our school, we ask students to read one book a month and get students to discuss it in class. Such classroom initiatives should be organised on a regular basis.”
Mr. Shastri said: “I have just joined six months ago, so will not be able to comment on what happened three years ago. But what I can say now is that we will disburse the funds well in time this year, and ensure that the book fairs are held all over.”
The scheme is part of the RMSA, which was launched in March, 2009 with the objective to enhance access to secondary education and to improve its quality.
The programme aims to improve secondary school enrolment, improve quality of education imparted at the secondary level, remove gender, socio-economic and disability barriers, providing universal access to secondary education by 2017.
The writer is a freelance journalist
