CHENNAI: For the past one year, about 700 children from underprivileged families, mostly Dalits, in a remote village in Bihar and Chennai are being imparted informal teaching by volunteers from their own community. The children, who were earlier averse to basic learning, are now showing incremental improvement and are able to read their regional language and English text books.
The Teaching Reading Project (TRP), a pilot initiative of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, is changing the lives these young minds. All these children are from around 10 government and corporation schools. In Bihar, the project is being implemented in Pindaruch village in North Bihar and in Chennai the schools are located Moggapair, Cholambedu and Taramani.
The three-year programme is being financially supported by Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd (TNPL), which is pumping Rs 15 lakh per year under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The national co-ordinator Rajesh Kumar, professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, told the Express that it’s not the conventional teaching. The idea is to remove the burden of schooling and performance of their head and allow them to enjoy the process. The study material is carefully prepared to suit the underprivileged students. “We have now completed one year and the recent progress test showed that about 30 per cent students got about 10 on 10 for reading their Hindi/Tamil and English text books, and about 40 per cent students got about five or more on 10, which is satisfying,” he said.
Also, the volunteer teachers are those who are picked-up from within the community to offer comfort for the students. They are paid Rs 100 daily for two hours of teaching. Under the project, the schools infrastructure is also developed like providing power supply. “Now, plans are afloat to turn these schools into smart schools, teaching rhymes and reading with the aid of laptop computers and other smart gadgets. Plans are underway to create library and sports facilities as well,” he said.
The professor said the children from 1st to 8th standard and are grouped into akshar (letter), anuchchhed (diacritics), shabd (word) and kahani (story) as per the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) classifactions. Children are given no assignments, tests, marks or grades; except a five-minute reading aloud test to check progress once in six months. To ensure standards of pronunciation and delivery, the project team in Chennai has prepared an audio version of the relevant books and text books. It helps students read the text while listening to it. This bi-focal approach, so to say, teaches not only how to read; it also helps teach how to speak. The Project team in Chennai is led by retired professor K Elango from Department of English, Anna University, and National Secretary of the English Language Teachers’ Association of India (ELTAI).
Now, the State government of Jharkhand and Puducherry are also showing interest in this model of education for their underprivileged children, said Rajesh Kumar.