Ranchi: To boost foundational literacy, the Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC) on Saturday flagged off the month-long reading campaign 2026 for all govt school students enrolled across the state under the theme, ‘My Words, My Story’.JEPC state project director Shashi Ranjan stressed the need to cultivate reading habits from early childhood. “Regular reading can improve learning outcomes, strengthen comprehension, and build confidence among children,” he said, urging district officials, educators, development partners and stakeholders to help make the initiative a success.Reading an excerpt from a book at the launch, state programme officer (Quality Education) with the JEPC Avinav Kumar said, “Grassroots-level participation remains crucial to ensuring widespread community engagement.”Designed to turn students into independent readers and confident communicators, the campaign includes read aloud sessions, shared reading, a 100-word story challenge, QR code story walls, children’s podcasts and a read-a-thon. The activities aim to strengthen linguistic competence and self-expression while helping children connect with local languages, culture and lived experiences.Poornima Garg, country director of Room to Read, the lead CSO partner, said, “The ownership demonstrated by the Jharkhand Government in taking forward the statewide campaign will create opportunities for children across the state to experience the joy of reading, while building a strong and lasting engagement with books and stories from an early age.”Officials said the campaign seeks to make books mirrors of familiar experiences and windows into new worlds, foster joyful learning, accelerate language development and drive sustained demand for quality children’s literature in native Indian languages. JEPC will also showcase exemplary district practices to inspire schools and communities to make reading a daily habit.
