Bangalore: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has announced the launch of the Karnataka Learning Partnership (KLP) along with Akshara Foundation of Bangalore.

Initiative

The KLP is a primary education initiative which involves public-private partnership. The first phase of the programme aims at taking up an "accelerated reading programme" for over 75,000 children in government schools in nine educational blocks in Bangalore Urban district.

The KLP evolved in view of growing concerns about the standard of education in government schools.

The State Government has decided to focus on improving reading skills among primary school children in the next few years.

The programme is being implemented by over 4,000 government schoolteachers who have been trained by Akshara.

Rohini Nilekani, chairperson of the Akshara Foundation, said: "We have worked closely with the Government and the SSA, keeping in mind the needs of the children. We want quality education to reach all schoolchildren within a definite period." She outlined the monitoring programme, which has been put in place to track the progress of the initiative.

Change

Basavaraj S. Horatti, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, pointed out the importance of change in the learning process.

"Even seventh standard students have problems reading. With cooperation from NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and corporate donors, we hope to realise our dream of 100 per cent literacy," he said.

The programme utilises pictographic story cards to help children read simple paragraphs over a 45-day period.

Catalysts

The stories will be narrated by teachers who will act as catalysts in the learning process.

As many as 3.3 million cards have been printed and distributed by the foundation.

"We are happy that this tried-and-tested method is now being scaled up across Bangalore Urban, and if it works, we can take it to the rest of the State," said T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, Secretary for Education.

A website, www.karnatakalearningpartnership.org, has been created to monitor the implementation of the programme.

The foundation hopes to continue the initiative by building libraries in government schools.

It is looking to expand the programme all over the State. Aided schools will also benefit.

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