|
Background: First developed by Pratham in 2002, the
accelerated reading techniques (for learning to read and do
basic arithmetic), are now running to scale in over a 100
districts of the country making a difference in the lives of
over a million children in the age group of 6 - 14. Pratham
model focuses on reading as a key activity within the
existing school system and providing age appropriate and
relevant teaching and learning material for this.
Over the last two years, state governments in Madhya
Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu
have taken up learning to read campaigns on a large
scale, in different forms, with the help of Pratham network.
These campaigns have led to significant improvement in the
reading levels of children and have also generated visible
impact on motivation of teachers and educational
administrators from the HM to the District Education Officer
(DEO). Pratham has ongoing partnerships with state
governments in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal,
Nagaland and Orissa.
The Problem: A survey to assess the current
Status of Education (ASER 2006) was conducted in 28
states in India in the months of October and November. One
of the key findings of this survey was that in Std V, 47%
children could not even read a Std II text fluently.
Specifically,
-
In Std I, 38.2% cannot read alphabets and 53.7%
cannot identify numbers
-
In Std II, 76.7% cannot read Std I text, and 75.0%
cannot do subtraction
-
In Std V, 47.0% cannot read Std II text, and 54.6%
cannot do division.
ASER 2006 indicates that half of all children in the country
start lagging behind in Std I and continue to lag behind in
the achievement of expected competencies in Std III, and Std
V.
The Solution: Pratham has launched the Read India
campaign aimed at achieving reading and arithmetic
proficiency for all children in the country within and
outside the school system. The focus will be on:
-
Std I-II : alphabets/words and numbers/place value
level.
-
Std
III-V: fluent reading, writing and solving arithmetic
problems.
Higher standards are not excluded, but will not be the
primary focus.
Execution: The Campaign will be phased over two years
and has to achieve its goals by 31st March 2009.
The phasing will be both geographical (propose to target
about 300 districts in the first year and the balance in the
second year) and sequential within each district (there will
be a summer campaign followed up by a low intensity school
campaign during the academic year).
This campaign will be executed with the help of school
teachers, anganwadi workers and volunteers, who will be
mobilized and trained by Pratham teams. While the school
teachers will be working inside their schools, volunteers
and anganwadi workers will be working with children and
their mothers outside school, particularly during the summer
school preparedness campaign.
Read India campaign proposes to introduce a daily
period for reading and arithmetic in school using graded
learning and teaching materials for children and teachers.
Volunteers will also ensure that mothers of such children
are involved in their children’s learning.
Each state will have a Core Group at the state capital,
which will be responsible for coordination with government,
creation of materials, logistics, accounts, monitoring,
evaluation and reporting. Pratham proposes to mobilize
volunteers at the village level and appoint coordinators at
the cluster, block and district levels.
Coordinators at the cluster and block level will coordinate
the activities with school teachers, volunteers and
anganwadi workers in school / village / community.
Pratham has invited the Government of India and all
the state governments to be closely involved in this
nationwide campaign from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2009.
| 
