The International Literacy Day, 8 September, saw the culmination of a 23-day-long India Gets Reading campaign. While the country has been witnessing an educational crisis brought on by the pandemic, Room to Read has used these challenging times to bring back focus on literacy and. It aims to sustain reading habits among primary school students through various means. Educationists have seen pedagogy compromised due to the absence of face-to-face classroom.
The online classes and dissemination of digital learning material for private schools looked like a seamless transition but government school struggled, especially in farflung areas. With physical access to libraries not possible, Room to Read published its books online. The books were a big hit with the children and were disseminated through the I-Leap portal of MP Government.
“The idea is to encourage children to read. It boots creativity as they learn new words and visual images are formed in their brains as they read,” said Lokesh Kumar Jatav, Commissioner, Rajya Shiksha Kendra, MP. Another way to reach out to the children was the use of the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform in three states—UP, MP and Chhattisgarh.
The IVR service, available through a toll-free number, enables young children to listen to new stories every day. Launching the service, the UP Minister for Basic Education Dr Satish Chandra Dwivedi said, “The initiative of IVR calls is a great opportunity for children as well as the community. I am sure children will enjoy it.” The number of calls has crossed 60,000. Room to Read also published 1,600 titles and distributed 26 million children’s books in 42 languages.
It joined hands with Google to publish these books and related resources on online platform called “Literacy Cloud”. “It’s an online repository of Room to Read’s books. The Cloud also has videos and other resources for children, teachers and even authors and illustrators,” Sourav Banerjee, Country Director of Room to Read India, said. To reach children in far-flung areas, a van with books constituting a mobile library travelled across Uttarakhand.
In Bageshwar, a 75-year-old man read six books at a go saying he had never seen such interesting and colourful books in his life. His sixyear- old granddaughter too eagerly listened to the stories narrated in the same premises. The campaign ended with an international webinar, During her keynote address, Dr. Maryanna Wolf, an expert on literacy in a digital culture and UCLA Distinguished Visiting Professor of Education said, “Covid-19 has changed our lives.
The children bearing the highest brunt of the pandemic are the ones who need access to high quality education the most. Academicians and government will now have to work harder than ever to reach the unreachable.”
(The writer is the Head of Communications, India, at Room to Read)