Room to Read Resources
Room to Read (RtR) is an international non-profit organization working across ten countries in Asia and Africa in areas of early literacy and girls’ education
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Area of Intervention •
Literacy program to enable primary grade children to become independent readers through a comprehensive approach to develop both reading skills and a habit of reading
Trained staff to monitor program implementation in lieu of specific requirement for the demonstration/ I-do schools as compared to the partnership/ We-do phase Technical resources comprising reading instruction curriculum, library books and training modules
Key Geography Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Karnataka
Need for the initiative Problem • • •
Inadequate standards for quality of education Non-uniform educational opportunities across the communities Low learning outcomes among students throughout the country
Impact and Key Learning Achieved so far •
Situation Before Lack of basic literacy and numeracy skills among primary school children, a major challenge in the government school system
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Intervention Overview Given that reading is the foundation for all academic learning, low reading levels have a cataclysmic effect on the entire education system.
Steps • •
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Implementation of the RtR literacy model in demonstration schools Capacity building of government systems on instructional design, training, monitoring and assessment Measure the overall impact of Literacy Program, present it to government stakeholders and plan for its state-wide expansion
In Class II, students from project schools could read 52 letters and 33 words per minute (WPM) against 35 letters and 15 WPM in control schools. The number of children reading 45 WPM in project schools measured four times higher than the comparison schools.
Key Learning •
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Working on both skills and habit of reading, especially in home language, essential for early literacy Availability of adequate and appropriate materials critical for any reading/ literacy program
