In another anti-screen push, UP schools to launch Super 20, Super 30 campaign to strengthen reading culture

Starts Champion Reader Award In SchoolsLucknow: After asking govt schools to reduce screen time and cultivate reading habits among children by making newspaper reading compulsory, the education department has now come up with Super 20, Super 30 Reading Campaign to further strengthen the reading culture in schools.The student who will read the maximum number of books will be declared the ‘Champion Reader of the Year’ and will be felicitated at the school level.Additional chief secretary, basic and secondary education, Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma has asked all education officers to award primary students who read 20 or more books and upper primary and secondary students who read 30 or more books as Super 20 and Super 30 Readers.Primary and secondary schools have also been asked to constitute a reading club to develop critical and logical skills among children. Sharma has asked schools to invite local authors and literary figures to school for interaction with students. In addition, officials and schools have been asked to present books as gifts at all award distribution ceremonies rather than mementoes or bouquets.Besides ensuring availability of newspapers, schools have been asked to conduct the activity of reading news and discussions on key articles regularly during the morning assembly. “This is intended to foster preparation for competitive examinations, enrich language and vocabulary, cultivate critical and logical thinking, enhance concentration and promote community engagement, social awareness and sensitivity among students, thereby significantly broadening the scope of their knowledge,” Sharma stated in his order.Further, fostering a reading culture, one period (class session) each week will be designated for a ‘Drop Everything and Read’ (DEAR) activity, during which head teacher, teachers and students will read books, stories, magazines or other materials of their choice.Schools have also been asked to organise a reading quiz festival every month based on the stories, books, children’s literature, picture books, newspapers and other reading materials read by the students. All participating students will be awarded prizes to encourage them for further reading.