The international criterion is that there should be at least 10 reading books for each child studying in a school. Accordingly, The Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam has instructed the relevant officials to prepare a special program to increase the number of books used in the school libraries by 50 percent during the next five years.
The program has been implemented now to provide Rs. 700 million to 3200 schools to purchase books under the logo “The nearest school is the best school.”
All books purchased for school libraries should have obtained the approval from the Advisory Board for Education Publications.
If a publisher or writer wishes to donate books to school libraries, they must make arrangements to submit their books as soon as possible for approval from the Advisory Board for Education Publications.
A system has been devised to get the approval without delay.
According to instructions given by the Minister, the licence is not required for books which received state literary awards.
Steps have also been taken to introduce a method to purchase the books from a book shop nearest to the school.