CHENNAI: Poor implementation, lack of books and overburdening students are affecting the School Education Department initiative to hold library reading sessions in schools, sources point out.

The scheme was brought in with noble ideals last academic year to inculcate learning habits among government school students. However, several teachers claim that the motive of this initiative is lost.

The directions issued to all government and government-aided schools to allocate one library period in a week is only on paper, they allege. If the library session is bad, a 20 minute newspaper reading session after lunch break is worse. Teachers lament that implementation of such initiatives are quite a challenge. Non-availability of latest books are making it worse as students tend to lose interest in reading outdated books. “We have been told to allocate library sessions. But I hardly notice any students engrossed in the book,” said a government- aided school teacher. But she says she won’t blame the students. “There aren’t enough books.

Books list must be updated every five years to kindle interest among the students. It will help us instil reading habits,” she said. Additionally, a government teacher in Chengalpattu also said that it is mandatory for them to feed the list of books read by students into the Education Management Information System (EMIS) portal. They say they have no choice but to upload false data given their predicament. “As most students are disinterested in reading and hardly finish a book, we have no choice but to upload false data in the EMIS portal. The education department should ideally update books in the library and stop bombarding students with a slew of activities,” the teacher said. Meanwhile, as per the instruction of former State Chief Secretary Irai Anbu, the education department director G Arivoli has directed schools to begin reading clubs.