KV students strengthening tradition of donating old textbooks to juniors

PRAYAGRAJ : Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan’s (KVS) noble initiative-Pustakopahar-- wherein students donate their used textbooks to their juniors is coming in handy for a number of needy students studying in the nine Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) of Prayagraj district in this time of pandemic.

Under the initiative, conceptualised in 2016, the KVS had asked principals of all 1,200-odd KVs of the country to motivate their students to donate their used textbooks. While doing this the juniors will save money, given the fact that prices of the books go up almost every year, a bid would also be made for environment conservation as printing less books would mean cutting less trees, KVS had explained.

“The project has received a great response not only in Prayagraj but also at KV-Kathmandu (Nepal) wherein almost half of the students of a respective class have been donating their books to juniors,” said principal of KV-Manauri, Shalini Dikshit.

At KV-Manauri, the initiative has proven to be a boon for a lot of students, especially those who are not from well-off families, as around 10 sets of old books, for each class, have been donated by seniors, barring those of classes 10 and 12 who need them for board exams as well as preparation of competitive exams, she added. Principal and teachers of all the KVs are also engaged in sensitising students of different classes to take good care of their textbooks so that these may be used by others as well.

“These books may be either presented by the student to his or her junior of the next batch or can be donated to the school library,” said principal KV-Jhalwa, Vijeyesh Pandey.

Besides, students are also being encouraged to donate other books like reference books, novels, non-fiction books etc from their personal possession which will not only save paper but also promote reading habit among students. “This aspect too has worked well as a lot of students have donated books to the school,” Pandey said.