Google, Piramal Foundation to help 6 lakh children learn to read in 30 districts

NEW DELHI: Piramal Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Piramal Group, on Monday said it has tied up with tech giant Google for an initiative to help 6 lakh children in India learn to read with the help of 'Read Along', a speech-based reading tool by Google.

This initiative has been launched in 30 aspirational districts across six states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh, spanning across two years, the Foundation said in a statement. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018, only 50.3 per cent of all children enrolled in fifth standard can read at least a second standard-level text.

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According to the Foundation, the learning initiative will aim to help bridge this gap and empower 3,000 plus managers to train 30,000 plus teachers across India to help improve foundational literacy among students aged 5-11 years.

This initiative aligns with the Ministry of Education's NIPUN Bharat initiative (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy), which aims to ensure that every child in India attains their foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes by 2026–27, it added.

In other news, students of government primary schools in Jharkhand will soon have access to child-friendly libraries where they will get books of their interest, which would help develop their reading habits and enhance learning capacity. Reading and learning ability among primary students have been a concern for the state education department.

"We have tied up with ‘Room to Read’ for the library project. The organisation is setting up libraries and providing study materials at no cost to the government. If the project is successful, it will be extended on a large scale through a proper scheme," said JEPC director Kiran Kumari Pasi.