A city school has developed an e-library for the students of junior school at a time when access to the school library is not possible.
Teachers at Mahadevi Birla World Academy have curated the library and a link will be shared with parents for vacation reading to promote the habit of reading among students.
The e-library, for students of kindergarten to Class V, has been created with age-appropriate content and the books are arranged on a virtual bookshelf. Students can click on a book of their choice to read it.
The library can be accessed from a phone or a laptop, a school official said.
“The culture of reading has to be brought back in families. The school is recommending books in an age-appropriate manner and making it available to them so that they do not feel that in the absence of an on-campus school and library, they cannot get books,” said Anjana Saha, the principal of the school.
The school has always promoted reading but during the pandemic, it might not be enough to just tell them to read a book because they may not be able to procure it, the school authorities felt.
“Storytelling also needs to be reaffirmed not only as a pedagogical tool but students need to have listening skills and for parents to read out to children they need to have access to books,” Saha said.
In many homes, grandparents do not stay with children and the practice of stories being told by them is on the decline, she said.
While the e-library has started with a set of books by Ruskin Bond and Roald Dahl and simpler ones for pre-primary students, the collection will be expanded, promised the school. “We started with a set of books but we will keep adding to it. In fact, it may so happen that a KG student whose level of reading is higher, can pick up a Class I book. When one goes to a library, one does not limit oneself to a particular bookshelf but has the freedom to browse and we are trying to promote that here, too,” said Nupur Ghosh, the vice-principal of the school.
After students come back from the vacation, activities will be designed around book reading to push them to read, a school official said.
“Since the books are in PDF format, it will be available to students if they want to revisit a book,” said Ghosh.
The initiative will be extended to the middle and senior school as well.