For adults, listening to someone speak a foreign language for a long time can be an ordeal. For many school students, this is how English sounds.
Now, a Chennai-based organisation will work with 90 government schools in Tamil Nadu to improve English teaching among students from Class II to V through the ‘Joyful Reading’ program. “The idea is to make learn English as an organic process. We teach children through activities, music and stories to help them read, speak and write English effortlessly,” says C.P. Viswanath, co-founder and director of The Karadi Path Education Company.
Through the initiative, which is supported by USAID, the Read Alliance and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, students of these 90 schools will have three 40-minute classes a week for two years. During the sessions, school teachers will facilitate their language training through the resources produced by Karadi Path.
“We will train teachers to tap their strength and their connection with the students in order to help them learn English. The teachers do not have to be proficient in the language,” he adds. The data will be studied by the State Council for Education Research and Training and based on its success, it will be scaled up in the future.
