DCPCR starts reading campaign to improve literacy levels in childcare institutes

DCPCR chairperson Anurag Kundu said a dedicated team, consisting members of the commission, district child protection officers, members of child welfare committees in Delhi, mentor teachers from the Directorate of Education (DoE), volunteers and members of NGO Pratham, will work on the project.

The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on Tuesday started a “reading campaign” in child care institutes (CCIs) across the national capital with an aim to enhance the foundational literacy and numeracy skills of children residing there.

There are 101 CCIs across Delhi housing child victims of trafficking, sexual violence, parental incarceration, parental death and child labour. (Pratham Gokhale/HT file photo. Representative image)

According to a statement issued by the commission, it had conducted a baseline assessment of all the children residing in CCIs in Delhi. “It was found that 52% of children were able to read words in Hindi and 55% of students were able to identify two-digit numbers. This poor learning level in CCI is the same as the dismal learning levels across states in India. Approximately 70% government school children are unable to read a Grade III level text (ASER Report, 2020). Hence, a dedicated intervention to strengthen the learning levels of children in CCIs was launched,” the statement read.

There are 101 CCIs across Delhi housing child victims of trafficking, sexual violence, parental incarceration, parental death and child labour.

DCPCR chairperson Anurag Kundu said a dedicated team, consisting members of the commission, district child protection officers, members of child welfare committees in Delhi, mentor teachers from the Directorate of Education (DoE), volunteers and members of NGO Pratham, will work on the project.

Kundu said the project is in line with the Delhi government’s flagship “Mission Buniyaad” project launched in city public schools in 2018 to improve learning levels among students. “Every day the team members will conduct reading campaigns in CCIs for two-three hours under this project. The idea is to improve the learning levels of children residing in CCIs... For example, if a child cannot read a sentence or a paragraph or doesn’t even know the alphabets, he or she will be taught from that level. This methodology is known as ‘teaching at the right level’,” he said.

The campaign will continue until November 14 which is celebrated as the children’s day every year. “The goal is to ensure 100% children are able to read Hindi fluently with comprehension and perform arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, by this November,” Kundu added.