Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia inaugurated the third edition of Mega Book Fair in Delhi on Tuesday, October 1. The book fair has been organised for the city government schools with 9,445 books put on display, including books for pre-primary, primary and senior secondary levels. Inaugurated at the School of Excellence, Rohini, the fair will continue till October 11.

Speaking at the occasion, Sisodia told that the representatives of all the 1,024 government schools of the Directorate of Education, have a responsible task of procuring the right books for their students. “It is a revolution in the system of libraries. This is an honest way of procuring books for our students based on their needs and also the requirement of the curriculum.”

He further added, “Before 2016, each school used to make the purchase of books independently. The lack of proper mechanism involved in the procurement of books across these 1,024 schools also resulted in more number of poor-quality books purchased through lobbying and favours.

To the heads of the schools, Sisodia explained “It is a huge responsibility for all of you here who are instrumental in picking up books for our students. Choose books wisely without falling into the greed of any kind. It is the future of these students that you are going to shape by procuring the right kind of books into the libraries. So be careful.”

The Delhi government has already allocated Rs. 9 crore for libraries of all government schools of Directorate of Education for the academic year 2019-20. Out of this, 50 per cent will be reserved for classes 9 to 12 for subject reading and the rest will be used for general reading.

Source: IANS