Read India !!

What is "Read India"?

• It is a people's initiative led by Pratham
  • to ensure improvement in basic learning in reading-comprehension, writing, and arithmetic. It is not only about reading.
  • It focuses on Std I-II at the alphabets/words and numbers/place value level and on Std III-V at the fluent reading, and solving arithmetic problems. Higher Std are not excluded, but are not the primary focus.
  
  
• It will set a time-table so that by March 2009, the goals of the campaign will be achieved. The end date of the campaign is not negotiable but phases are.
• It is a two year phased campaign to improve quality of learning of basic skills that will simultaneously initiate action on the ground and persuade governments to take up the program statewide, even if phased.
• A phased program will be chalked out in each state by a state-level group led by Pratham or a Pratham affiliate.
• We will build partnerships with willing governments. Where governments are not able to serve as a formal partner, the Read India campaign will directly work with volunteers in every village and urban slum communities as per a phased plan to bring about the change.

Why "Read India"?

• The objective of Read India is to impact learning of basic 3R's among children across India. There will be no shift of focus from this. This is the Cause.
• Yet, we know that when a massive effort is undertaken with teachers, officers, volunteers, panchayat, VEC, and mothers involved, the act of changing the learning levels positively affects everyone involved. This leads to a motivation and a desire to bring about additional change.
• This campaign will:
  • change the attitude that "these children" cannot learn by showing that they do make rapid progress in a short time on a massive scale.
  • help in catalyzing a larger change inside the school system although that is not a primary design objective.
  • create the springboard to the next level of learning achievement beyond basic 3 R's. The next level of achievement beyond the 3 R's may be taken up in districts or states where the goals of Read India have been largely reached.

How "Read India"?

• The campaign has four major components:
  • Introduction of "learning to read" (and arithmetic) activities in all schools. Simple interventions include a "reading period" aimed at improving fluency in reading to teaching the use of alphabet and "barakhadi" (or equivalent) charts as a simple tool.
  • Creating and supplying appropriate reading and learning materials to teachers, volunteers. The materials will be graded in terms of level of difficulty from alphabets, words (simple and difficult) to simple paragraphs, difficult (to read, to comprehend) texts, and simplified narration of some textbook lessons.
  • Involving young volunteers who will in turn ensure that mothers are involved in their children's learning. It may become possible to have mother literacy classes if the government agrees to link mother literacy with children's learning.
  • Evaluation of the project by the implementing network and also an external agency appointed for the purpose.