Grace marks, reading fete being mulled for promoting reading habit among students

March 12, 2024 09:38 pm | Updated 09:38 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

A Vayanotsavam (festival of reading) will be organised at the school-level as part of initiatives to promote the habit of reading among children, Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said.

The General Education department is considering introducing grace marks for reading from the coming academic year. On Tuesday, it kickstarted activities to promote the reading habit among students with an interaction chaired by the Minister in which representatives of various media outlets participated.

The Minister said steps to promote reading, including newspaper reading, would be implemented in schools.

A special period for reading newspapers and conducting debates and discussions on news and issues was one of the suggestions that arose at the meeting.

It underlined the need to ensure that students read the newspaper every day. Besides debates, write-ups would also be prepared by students on the main news.

The meeting called for teacher and parental intervention in ensuring that students developed the reading habit. To ensure this, handbooks prepared by the department for parents and teachers would include recommendations on how to encourage their children to read, the Minister said.

The Minister tasked State Council of Educational Research and Training Director Jayaprakash R.K. with preparing the draft of the modalities for implementing the recommendations.

Director of General Education Shanavas S. spoke at the interaction.