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Reaching out

A report on project ‘English Next India', funded by the British Council, has found that India is lagging behind in the number of proficient English speakers.

AID India founder and CEO, Balaji Sampath, hopes to make a difference. .

Through its flagship initiative, ‘Eureka Child', AID India aims to “provide quality education for every child in Tamil Nadu”, which includes making English more accessible to underprivileged children in urban and rural areas. “There is a big gap in education between the rich kids in English-medium schools and underprivileged kids in Government schools,” says Sampath.

AID India has devised a programme ‘Ready to Read' that aims to improve English comprehension and reading skills in Tamil-medium schools. Part of this project includes a DVD series, ‘Wow! What's that sound?'

The DVD component is the first bi-lingual Tamil-English, culturally-appropriate material available to primary schools. To date, test screenings involving over 500 students have been conducted in 20 schools across the State“The response has been amazing. The kids relate well to the characters onscreen, and interact with them by shouting out words in English.” It has also been presented at two language conferences, and received an encouraging response from other language experts. .

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