Here's the text of a presentation I made at a seminar in the New Delhi World Book Fair on 27th February 2012.
GETTING
THE ‘RIGHT’ BOOKS INTO CHILDREN’S HANDS
What
kind of books do children need? And what do we do to enable such books to be
selected and included in the school libraries being introduced under RTE across
the country?
I. What kind of books do
children need?
The
five questions that must be answered in ‘yes’ in order to qualify them as being
‘right’ for children.
1. Is it child oriented?
·
Does
it see from the child’s point of view?
·
Does
it take as its core what will be interesting / fun / engaging for children?
·
Does
it see children as having some intelligence and experience of their own, or as
empty pots to be ‘filled’ or as passive beings to be ‘moulded’?
·
Is
it preachy or does it help children come to their own understanding, their own
conclusions?
2. Is it age appropriate?
·
In
terms of subject matter, use of fantasy/imagination, treatment of the subject,
references made to the child’s life and way of seeing, understanding what is
difficult for a child at this age (and making it easy), use of language /
vocabulary / structure of narrative or presentation, modes of communication
used (e.g. text to picture ratio), designing, fonts, etc.?
3. Is it true to the genre and
its requirements?
·
If
it is a story does it have a real conflict driving the plot?
·
Does
a poem have the kind of word play and imagery that children can relate with as
well as take forward?
·
Does
non-fiction use entry points that draw children in, and relate with children’s
day-to-day experiences while helping them understand something that lies beyond
their environment?
4. Can it be re-visited?
·
Does
it have the emotional appeal that draws children to go through it again and
again?
·
Can
they find new things in it, whether in the visuals or in the text?
·
Can
they do things with it differently, over different times?
·
Are
there ‘openings’ in it that children can fill in differently at different
times?
5. Does it take the child
beyond what she can usually pick up in textbooks or regular TV shows?
·
A
book is a take-off point where the action continues in the child’s mind. It can
be inexpensive, easy to carry around and use….
·
And
it should enable exploration, sharing, further imagination…
6. Finally, is the overall
package localizable?
Children
who are deprived of such books are deprived. Period.
In
fact, the absence of such materials reflects the true poverty of India…Do our
children, everyday, spend hours engaging with such material?
And
what do we do so that this happens?
II. Getting the right books
into children’s hands
All
children will come across textbooks… we need to influence these, but that is
another story…
Under
the RTE, libraries are being established in each of the 13.5 lakh+ government
schools. You already know how books get selected, and why the ‘wrong’ books are
so prevalent ‘out there’.
What
do we do?
Some
suggestions:
1. Establish standards and
disseminate them
·
Agree
on a reasonably clear set of criteria of what kind of books are desirable in
our context. (The context bit is critical!)
·
Convert
this into the kind of language that a lay person can understand (accompanied by
a set of objectively chosen exemplars to illustrate these if needed).
·
Ensure
that you actually develop and publish such material at an affordable price.
·
Organize
widespread dissemination of this set of criteria (or standards). In the media
there are talk shows, columns, TV programmes on topics such as fashion (what
your child should wear), the latest gadgets, preparing your children for
admissions or examinations – but not on what your child should be reading. We
are at fault, and we deserve what we face…
·
Use
the weekend supplements of newspapers to showcase good material, actually give
exemplars.
·
Have
regular reviews brought out (like the film reviews that give ratings on a 5
star systems!) – while spelling out why something is rated well.
2. Develop and disseminate
procurement guidelines
·
Develop
what you think should be model guidelines for procurement of good children’s
books. Make the process of developing these guidelines itself a participatory
and transparent one, involve government representatives.
·
Once
you have such guidelines available, ask the ministries / departments to
consider using them, make them available in the internet, and in the hands of
decision-makers who are required to use such guidelines.
·
Identify
good practices (related to large-scale book procurement) and disseminate them.
Institute a system of objectively recognizing good governance with regard to
procurement and use of books and libraries. Have a credible system of doing
this (if our process is in doubt, once again, we would deserve what we get!).
3. Reach out to parents
·
Take
the parent and SMCs into confidence. Have a communication strategy wherein they
learn about the importance of god books and also realize that it is their
children’s right to get them under the RTE. A large-scale parental education
programme is called for.
·
This
is one area where a large number of NGOs could also contribute.
4. Provide exposure where
required
·
Organize
a buyers’ book fair specifically for state officials from across the country or
at least make better use of the existing book fairs. Maybe you can convince
NBT/MHRD to support the organization of a business / buyers’ fair’ of this
kind.
May
the best books be bought and reach children’s hands!
3 comments:
Sir,
I completely agree with you, we truly are in shortage of "right books". But I also have a question related to this. Along with the supply issue, isn't there a bigger problem of demand that also has to be addressed? In the sense that children read less these days.
To add on, along with procurement of books, don't you think a bigger question that should be asked is - "Do our children, everyday, spend some hours engaging with any reading material?" So along with a library, can schools think of bringing in library periods in their weekly timetable to make children go through these books?
More importantly, will this idea be practical in government schools, as some of the government high schools I visited face an issue of finishing portions within the existing time-slot? Or alternatively can the text book creators provide excercises based on suggested readings to force both the school and the student to engage in reading? I believe that it is the SCERT who are deciding on the textbook content for the respective government schools.
Though there may be shortage of quality works generated these days, the total volume available till now is pretty huge to allow filtering with the guidelines mentioned.
I should admit here that with television, youtube and other web sources providing me more visual content, I too am guilty of spending less time on a book now.
school library....... is it realy used by govt school children? infact when compared to mobile use,library use has mimised. It is the teacher who has to select and give books to childran and also follow it up ...........
Ensuring children have access to the right books is crucial for fostering a love of reading and lifelong learning. It's a vital step in nurturing their imagination and cognitive development.
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