The Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights' (DCPCR) "Reading Campaign" across Child Care Institutions (CCIs) in the Capital has managed to significantly increase the foundational literacy and numeracy skills of children between March and May this year.
According to DCPCR data, the campaign, runs across 62 CCIs covering over 1,000 children, has resulted in a jump in the number of children who can read an advanced story and the number of children who can do basic division.
On the other hand, the data showed that the number of children having trouble identifying letters and digits had dropped.
The DCPCR said, "The percentage of children who can read advanced story (in Hindi) increased from 13% to 25%. The percentage of children who can do division rose from 31% to 49%. The percentage of children who could not read letters (in Hindi) dropped from 19% to 12%, while the percentage of children who cannot identify digits dropped from 13% to 5%."
In collaboration
Officials said that the campaign, run in collaboration with the Department of Women and Child Development and the Directorate of Education of the Delhi government, had this year scaled it to 62 CCIs. It had begun last year with 30 CCIs.
The project is based on the Delhi government’s "Mission Buniyaad" project and the DCPCR conducts regular training sessions for teachers of CCIs in collaboration with Pratham Education Foundation and Ashoka University.
In a statement, the DCPCR said, “The commission aims to ensure that 100% of the children are able to read Hindi fluently with comprehension and perform arithmetic operations by August 2022.”
