An Initiative to Help 6 Lakh Children in India Learn to Read: Tie-up Between Piramal Foundation and Google

Vinod Kakumanu
Dec. 20, 2022, 3:13 p.m.

Piramal Foundation has tied up with Google for an initiative towards helping 6 lakh Indian children learn to read with the aid of Google’s speech-based reading tool ‘Read Along’. As stated by the Foundation, this initiative spanning across two years, has been launched in 30 districts across 6 states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Chattisgarh.

As per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018, only 50.3 percent of all children enrolled in 5 th grade are able to read at least a 2 nd grade-level text. According to the Foundation, this initiative’s purpose is to bridge this gap and to help improve foundational literacy among students aged 5-11 years, by empowering more than 3000 managers to train more than 30,000 teachers across India.

The Foundation further added that this initiative aligns with the Education Ministry’s National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN), which is aimed at ensuring every Indian child attaining their foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes by 2026-27.

As per other news, students at Jharkhand government’s primary schools will soon be able to access child-friendly libraries. Availability of books of their interest in these libraries will help in developing their reading habits along with enhancing their learning capacity.