e-Libraries in 3,499 schools a failure- Audit.Gen.
View(s):The Ministry of Education’s (MoE) efforts to establish e-Libraries in 3,499 schools across the country, has been a failure, the 2019 Auditor General’s Report has pointed out.
The MoE, under ‘Nearest School is the Best School’, had established 2,180 Libraries in classrooms and 1,013 private libraries for the 4.3 million schoolchildren.
Accordingly, 80 officers selected from 98 Education Zones in the 9 Provincial Councils, were trained as Librarians, at a cost of Rs. 3.6 million.
Despite this, the Report notes that 1,906 school Libraries are functioning without proper Librarians, and do not serve the purpose they were established for.
The Libraries were set up with the help of the National Library & Documentation Service, following a thorough survey on the reading habits of schoolchildren and the need for Libraries in schools. - CC