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Room to Read
from MHRD Compendium
by renure
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
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
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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
Situation Before Lack of basic literacy and numeracy skills among primary school children, a major challenge in the government school system
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 • 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
Resources • 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
Impact and Key Learning Achieved so far • 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 • 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
