Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the 100-day reading campaign ‘Padhe Bharat’ on Saturday. The campaign has been launched as a part of the implementation of National Education Policy (NEP), which promotes the concept of joyful learning for children and ensuring age appropriate books in local languages.
Launching the campaign, Pradhan underlined the importance of reading that children need to develop for their lifelong growth and learning. He emphasized that reading is the foundation of learning, and students should be motivated to read books to develop creativity, critical thinking, vocabulary and the ability to express themselves. “It helps children to relate to their surroundings and real life situations,” he added. He stressed on the need to create an enabling environment in which students read for pleasure and develop their skills through a process that is enjoyable and sustainable.
Pradhan also spoke about the five books that he has picked to begin reading. He encouraged everyone to adopt the habit of reading books and urged all to share what they are reading along with suggestions, the official release said.
Padhe Bharat campaign will focus on children studying upto Class 8. The reading campaign will be organized for 100 days (14 weeks) starting from January 1, 2022, to April 10, 2022. The reading campaign aims at active participation of all stakeholders at the national and state level including children, teachers, parents, community, educational administrators etc. One activity per week per group has been designed under the campaign focusing on making reading enjoyable and building a lifelong association
The 100 days reading campaign will also focus on Indian languages including mother tongue, local and regional languages.