TN: Karur govt school sets up library for parents to promote reading

TRICHY: A panchayat union primary school (PUPS) in Karur district has set up an exclusive library to cultivate reading habit among parents while they visit the school for dropping and picking their wards.
The school management committee comprising teachers, parents and local body representatives will manage the facility that has a collection of 150 books and newspapers.Since the pandemic threatens the regular functioning of the school, the management plans to allow parents to take books home.
According to Right to Education Act 2009, a school management committee (SMC) is mandatory for government schools to monitor the functioning of schools, teachers and fund utilisation. The K Paramathi school in Karur district is one of the few schools to have SMC and has 15 parents in the committee. About 200 squarefeet of space was allocated for the committee. Recently, the headmaster installed a library for the parents who frequently visit the committee office with racks of Tamil books under ‘self-motivation’ and biography genres. As parents arrive early to pick their wards in the evening, the headmaster said the library would persuade them to read while waiting. “The children leave by 4.10 pm, but parents from adjoining villages arrive as early as 3.30 pm. Giving them an opportunity to read books will indirectly persuade the children to read beyond their academics,” R Selvakannan, the headmaster, told TOI.
As most of the parents are either glued to television or smartphone, the headmaster said that children are deprived of opportunity to read books. The library in K Paramathi school has 20 chairs and a shed that enable the parents to maintain social distancing while reading.
“As schools are prone to closure for preventing Covid-19 spread, we will introduce book sharing and takeaway option to promote reading even when we are closed. We need more books,” the headmaster added. For donating books to the library, the headmaster can be reached at 98946-66765.