To inculcate the habit of reading among children, all ZP schools will have children reading out lessons to villagers on the 15th of every month.

Students from class one to seven will be involved in these sessions.

Over three lakh students in the district from 3,500 ZP schools will be staring this initiative from December 15.

“We will ensure that all the schools from the 13 talukas follow this and reading to the public will ensure transparency,” said Sanjiv Kumar, CEO, ZP.

“The topics the children will read on include marathi, science, geography or history ,” he elaborated.

A three-hour long programme for students as well as teachers will be observed on the same day and those faring well will be given grades.

“It will be the responsibility of the teachers to ensure that the students do well in these reading lessons,” he said.

A senior teacher from a ZP School said, “Although there would be no marks, the grades given to each class and the total for the school will be assessed by the education officers.”

With students undergoing rigorous training for the last three months, the first trial session conducted in some villages on November 14 elicited a good response from the villagers who gathered at the Panchayat office.

The ZP has 1.58 lakh male students and 1.46 lakh female students and the initiative is being taken up under the academic excellence programme.

The reading is done in public so that the students capacity is brought under public scrutiny.

Students, teachers, parents and other villagers will be called to attend this programme on the 15th of everymonth,’’said a senior education officer from the Zilla Parishad.