Help Aria Bring Digital Reading to Kids in India

As the school year started in July 2019, the Read to Kids was launched in the selected 6 schools and 4 daycare centers. All 12 teachers from pre-school to grade 2 and 4 Anganwadi workers attended a kickoff workshop and refresher training. Training for teachers on reading techniques included read-aloud, shared reading, and storytelling which was carried out with Worldreader Kids’ supplementary reading titles found on the app. Primary grade teachers were asked to integrate storytelling in their Hindi and English classes at least twice a week for 45 min and pre-school teachers and Anganwadi workers were encouraged to do so every day. 

Worldreder also partnered with National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA), the largest Affordable Private Schools network in India, to formalize a plan to scale and sustain Read to Kids. The program was taken to the schools via a Beta Sales Drive in Oct to Dec 2019 and 34 schools were enrolled in the program during the reporting period. The implementation will be rolled out for the 2020-2021 school year.

As the COVID pandemic and the related home learning set in, Worldreader’s Read to Kids was one of the very few impact programs that was able to swiftly work with the school and education department administration to amplify the home reading side of the work where parents were supported by teachers to continue reading and learning at home. This was possible due to the digital nature of the program design and leveraging WhatsApp channels.

Covid Response

• Transition to Home Reading: Daycares and Schools are under COVID Closure from 22nd March until post June as per Govt directive. The project activities were rapidly transitioned to Home Reading by Parents with Teachers supporting them with Reading Activities on a daily basis.

• Global Keep Children Reading Campaign: Aligned with the global campaign, Keep Children Reading, the response was initiated with the SARD team to get the information out to Parents by leveraging pre-existing communication apps that schools use to stay in touch with parents.  

• Audio Tips and Whatsapp creatives: In line with the school closures and the need for Parents to play Teachers at home, daily audio tips and WhatsApp creatives were shared in the groups to motivate parents to read daily with children and to get better equipped to read to their children at home.

• BookSmart 14 Day Reading Challenge: A 14 day Global Reading Challenge is also being done involving all the project schools and AWC students. This reading challenge includes books for children aged 3-8. After completing all 14 books, all the participants will receive a link to download their Booksmart Reading Challenge certificate.

Thanks to your contributions, we are 1/3 of the way to our goal. Please spread the word to your friends and families to help bring our digital reading program to an 11th Anganwadi! 

Thank you for your support! 

Worldreader 

Links:

• Our work in India