Read India Movement - Learning to Read, Reading to Learn

		Pratham and Pratham Books
		The "Read India" Movement
		Read India Books

The “Read India” Movement

Read India Books was set up as part of the Read India Movement, a nation wide programme to promote reading. The Read India Movement started as a result of widespread research that showed that a large number of children in India, who are in school, cannot read. Our estimates are that 1 in 3 children in primary schools across the country cannot read fluently. And children who are unable to read are unable to learn due to lack of comprehension, forcing them to drop out of school.

Learning to Read

In 2003, Pratham, a national initiative that seeks to ensure universal primary education, innovated and tested on a large scale a method that uses a child centric approach to teaching children how to read. This 45-day programme uses illustrated story cards and phonetic “Barakhadi” charts to teach children how to decode sounds and recognize words and letters. The method integrates a joyful approach to learning where children are encouraged to read and participate in activities based on each story card. This programme has been conducted across India with amazing results. Today, 200,000 children have learnt how to read through the Accelerated Reading method.

Reading to Learn

Once children learn how to read it is crucial to sustain their interest by cultivating a reading habit. Pratham responded by setting up libraries for children that would provide them the opportunity to read meaningful children’s books in regional languages. Our aim was to provide a book in every child’s hand and a library in every neighbourhood. However, while we were in the process of creating these libraries we found that there was a dire shortage of high-quality, low-cost children’s books. To fill this gap that existed in the market, the Pratham Books Trust was registered in January 2004 and Read India Books was born.

	Please read our new blog at: http://blog.prathambooks.org/		Join our Facebook Page too: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pratham-Books/9307274926