State to benefit from USAID's literacy project

Karnataka will be a one among the three states in the country to benefit from a $5.2 million project to improve reading skills among primary school students.

“Nurturing Early Literacy”, as the project is called, is set to be launched very soon by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with Tata Trusts.

 The plan is to improve the reading skills of as many as 93,000 primary schoolchildren across one administrative block each in Karnataka and Maharashtra and two administrative blocks in Rajasthan.

The partnership will be managed by the Center for microFinance in Jaipur, and implemented over the next four years in conjunction with four local partner organizations, Room to Read, Bodh Shiksha Samiti, Pragat Shikshan Sanstha, and Kalike.

In-class training

The four partners will use a multi-pronged approach to improve early the foundational literary skills with adequate knowledge to teachers, in-class training sessions, and impartial access through primary schools and community libraries, said a release from the United States Consulate in Chennai.