School education department, national book trust partner for Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya framework

NEW DELHI: The Department of School Education signed an agreement with the National Book Trust to create an institutional framework for the digital library platform, Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya. The platform will provide access to over 1,000 non-academic books in more than 22 languages besides English.

According to the official press release, the initiative aims to facilitate the availability of quality books across various geographies, languages, genres, and levels. The books will be categorised into four age groups, as per the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, for readers aged 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years.

The Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya will include the availability of books in multiple genres, such as adventure and mystery, humour, literature and fiction, classics, non-fiction and self-help, history, biographies, comics, picture books, science, poetry, etc.

Further, the books will foster cultural awareness, patriotism, and empathy with an intent to realise Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. The Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya app will be available for download on both android and iOS devices, the official press release read.

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Speaking about the initiative, the secretary of higher education department, K Sanjay Murthy, underscored the importance of non-academic books in the lives of children as it help them in choosing their discipline of studies in future. He also urged the national book trust to invite faculty members of the academic institutes to write good books that can be included in the Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya.

Highlighting the significance of the inclusion of non-academic titles in the Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya, joint secretary of the education department, Archana Sharma Awasthi informed that over 1000 books in 23 languages, including English, have already been added to the e-Pustakalaya.