Source: jharkhand group
Colourful, lovingly-written and well-produced books are on the way to thousands
of little ones attending school in over 70,000 government schools in Bihar. In
fact, three truck loads of children's books got sold out in just two and a half
days! And teachers who could not buy books on the third day were so
disappointed that they created a ruckus in Gopalgunj, reported 'Hindustan', the
Hindi language newspaper from state-capital Patna. The book fair organised by
the Bihar Department of Education, was the first in the series being held in
all districts of Bihar.
How did this unbelievable situation arise in a state often maligned for being
non-responsive to initiatves to do with elementary education? The Central
govenment recently decided that schools could utilise 2% of the funds given to
them through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to buy books and resources to improve
reading levels. The goverment of Bihar decided to use this fund to encourage
all schools to buy story books for students of class 1 and 2. The first step
was to call independent publishers to provide books for distribution across
Bihar. The next step was the selection of books by reading experts. The third
step was to get publishers to sell the selected books through melas in 37
districts between November 23, 2008 to January 7, 2008.
Bihar selected 20 books and 20 story-cards from Pratham Books. In a massive
operation, the Pratham Books team set out to print, dispatch and make available
books for sale in the melas, many in remote and not-easily accessible places in
Bihar. With ample help from the local members of our partner NGO, Pratham
Education Initiative, we've hired people and vehicles to assist us in this
unique initiative from Bihar. The demand for more books in the very first set
of melas, in Saran, Siwan and Gopalganj, is an indication of the interest that
teachers have to go all out to improve reading levels among their children.
Bihar's initiative is a model that can easily be replicated in other states to
improve reading levels among young students.
Even as this blog is being written, our colleagues are doing brisk business in
West Champaran, East Champaran and Muzzafarpur. The 20 books and 20 story-cards
packed together in flat cartons, are being bought by teachers for their school
libraries. Multi-tasking is the order of the day, as our team leaders hand over
the books, keep an eye on the money box, count out small change, make sure the
cheques that they receive are filled in properly, dispatch assistants to
deposit cash in the local bank, answer a petulant teacher who wants to know why
he can't have one of the BIG cartons that he sees in the corner. And what about
your food and water, I asked ? Well, that's just not as important as 'putting a
book in every child's hands' my colleague shouted into his mobile phone just
now!
Thu Dec 4, 2008 12:01 am
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ashok paikaray
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this unbelievable situation arise in a Bihar State often mal How did this
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Colourful, lovingly-written and well-produced books are on the way to thousands
of little ones attending school in over 70,000 government schools in Bihar.
In... ashok paikaray
ak_paikaray
5:22 pm
Bihar Network
http://bihar-network.ning.com
