Almost every school brochure mentions a library. Few parents ever ask what actually happens inside it. Yet a shelf of books and a child who reads are two very different things.
Heeru Bhojwani has spent 25 years as a librarian at the American School of Bombay and now advises schools. On The Reading Lens she told us that in many Indian schools the library is one more check mark on the board's list, alongside the playground and the laboratory. There is access, but no expertise and no accountability.
What separates a real library from a room of books?
Heeru's standard is three things: access, expertise and accountability. She wants a qualified librarian rather than someone who stamps and shelves books, a set budget (her suggestion is 5% of the school budget), and a collection that evolves. Her question to a school proud of its 10,000 books: when did you last weed out the old ones and bring in a new collection? In her view, the standard bachelor's degree in library science in India does not teach the craft of running a school library, so the training gap is real.
She also sees the library as a third space, after home and the classroom. A child should have the agency to go to the shelf and pick, without judgement. One student, leaving school last year, told her she still remembered the book Heeru had handed her in Grade 6, and how it built her empathy for other children's lives. Heeru had forgotten which book it was. The student had not.
Is a once-a-week library period enough?
No, says Heeru, and her comparison is losing weight. A meal at a restaurant happens in 20 minutes. Losing ten kilos does not: it is eating right every single day, with everyone around you supporting it. Reading is the same. Her working number is 20 minutes a day, and nobody can do it for the child. The librarian who sees a class for 20 minutes a week cannot do it alone, and neither can a library that shuts at lunchtime, something she once had to argue against with her principal.
Questions to ask your child's school
Do you have a trained librarian, and what training do they get?
When did you last remove old books and add new ones?
How much of the budget goes to the library each year?
Is the library open at lunchtime, for children who want quiet?
Is the catalogue digitised, so parents can see what is there and borrow for home?
What to try this week
Ask one of these questions at your next parent-teacher meeting.
Sit down and read together for 20 minutes on three evenings.
Let your child read what they like. Heeru's advice is to be less judgemental about what is on the shelf.
