What is "Read India"?

• It is a people's initiative led by Pratham to ensure improvement among children in basic learning in reading, writing, and arithmetic.


• It focuses on Std I-II at the alphabet / words and numbers / place value level


• On Std III-V at the fluent reading level, and solving arithmetic problems.


• Higher Std children are not excluded if they too need support.


• It is a phased campaign that will simultaneously initiate action on the ground and persuade governments to take up statewide programs to improve quality of learning of basic skills.

Why "Read India"?

There are an estimated 140 million children in the age group 6 to 14 years in primary schools. Of these

• 30 million cannot read,
• 40 million can recognize a few alphabet,
• 40 million can read some words,
• and 30 million can read paragraphs struggling.

Over 55 million of these children will not complete four years of school eventually adding to the illiterate population of India. The objective of Read India is to impact learning of basic 3R's among children across India.

• No child without knowledge of alphabet and maximum children reading words and knowing counting and recognition of numbers by the end of std I
• Over 60% reading simple sentences or better (with comprehension) and doing basic addition subtraction with borrow and carry by the end of std II
• 100% reading fluently with comprehension by the end of std III and knowing the four arithmetic operations.
• When a massive effort is undertaken with teachers, officers, volunteers, panchayat leaders, VECs, and mothers involved, the act of changing the learning levels affects all concerned positively. This leads to a motivation and a desire to bring about further 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.
  • create the springboard to the next level of learning achievement beyond basic 3 R's.

How “Read India”?

The campaign has four major components:

• Introduction of "learning to read" (and arithmetic) activities in all schools.
• Creating and supplying appropriate reading and learning materials to teachers, volunteers. The materials will be graded from alphabet, 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.
• Evaluation of the project by the implementing network and also an external agency appointed for the purpose.

Strategies

• In any village, there will be one / two village volunteers who will work with about 40 / 50 children who need help as per the goals set.
• Each volunteer / teacher will have a chart of names of children at different levels in reading and math which can be updated periodically and at the end of the program.
• The message is taken home to the mother along with some learning materials, which the child can borrow from a pool of materials (mini- library).
• Teacher/ volunteer training is short- no more than one or two days and is held at no higher than the block level. Cluster-level orientation is preferred as it involves less cost and the possibility of demonstration in a school or a village is much better done there than in a "training place".
• A follow up for the next three-four months to further tip the scales in favor of fluent reading through low-intensity, low-monitoring interventions is in agenda. Experience shows that teachers and volunteers are enthused by their success and feel comfortable in carrying this forward without much pushing needed.