Headmasters, teachers and School Education Department officials should encourage students to read books outside the curriculum too, Collector P.Uma Maheswari said here on Wednesday.
Speaking at function to mark the donation of motivational and general knowledge books to 100 government schools under the ‘Read and Rise’ initiative of the The Hindu Group, she observed that nowadays reading among the younger generation was largely confined to the academic books. Reading newspapers and magazines has come down. Teachers and officials should encourage students to go beyond academics to inculcate the reading habit, she said.
The Integrated Village Development Project (IVDP), Krishnagiri, a non-governmental organisation serving society by promoting self-reliance among women by forming self-help groups and educating children of less privileged sections, has joined hands with The Hindu Group of Publications in the endeavour of distributing books worth ₹8 lakh to government schools. Each of the 100 schools will receive around 40 books each for their libraries.
Kulandai Francis, founder president, IVDP, underlined the role of teachers in motivating and nurturing the habit of reading books, beyond the prescribed texts, among students.
T.Vijayalakshmi, Chief Educational Officer, Pudukottai, called upon headmasters of the government schools to motivate the students to utilise the libraries to the maximum.