ON International Literacy Day, it is time to do some stock-taking. And statistics do not console when it comes to the continuing high rate of school dropouts and the inability of even 50 percent of children going to government schools to read fluently.
But the picture is not entirely bleak. In Bangalore, the Akshara Foundation is spearheading the ‘Read India’ initiative, a nationwide campaign by Pratham Resource Centre. ‘Read India’ is a three-pronged strategy which aims to inculcate the reading habit in one million children in the next five years.