(slow music)
- Around the globe the belief was
that if you open a school children will learn.
But children are not learning.
For example in India 97% children
are enrolled in schools
but approximately 50% children go
to fifth grade and cannot read a second grade paragraph.
The question to be asked is why?
All human knowledge is stored in words and numbers.
If you don't have foundational skills all doors
to acquiring wider knowledge are closed.
And that's, I think, a global problem.
In the Pratham program it takes 50 days
for a child to learn to read.
If that is possible how long will it take
for 100 million children to read?
Is the answer 50 times 100 million
or are we talking about 50 days?
I have been working in this sector for the last 25 years.
Everybody is trying to find answers to the same problem.
How can we get all children to learn.
I think it's easy to see in Indian schools,
there are those who have access to pre-school education,
parents are educated, they form
what I would call the front of the class.
And the remainder who don't have pre-school education,
they form the back of the classroom.
And the teacher actually more engaged
with the front of the classroom
and the back of the classroom gets more and more neglected.
I think that needs to be shaken up
and said, "do something about it."
Pratham solution for this problem
is called Teaching at the Right Level.
The place to start is always assessment.
Visual piece of paper with some words, some alphabets
and some long paragraphs.
Depending upon which one children can read
that is the level of the child.
Instead of teaching children at every age grade,
we actually try to grow children according to levels.
The activities are divided into three parts.
The class begins with everybody participating
in a story listening activity.
Because that doesn't reading, it only requires listening
and learning the words.
And then they break up into small groups.
The alphabet readers are engaging with all kinds
of phonemic charts and so on
and they can read words before they know it.
So if you know words, you are given paragraphs.
So before they know it, they've become paragraph readers.
And the third activity is then
the children individually do some writing.
So every child actually starts progressing.
In the Pratham program it takes 50 days for a child
to learn to read.
Children feel good about themselves.
It's not only about reading, writing, arithmetic,
believing in yourself is
the most important strength that you can acquire.
And its great fun.
- Pratham has worked together
with J-Pal affiliated professors
for over 15 years
to evaluate and adapt the approach to work at scale.
We're a global research center,
J-Pal conducts randomized evaluations
on social programs.
One of the most impressive studies
was conducted in Uttar Pradesh.
Students who attended the learning camp,
at the end of the program,
double the number of those kids
could read a simple paragraph
than those children who didn't attend the program.
What we're trying to do at J-Pal
is best support governments and a number of organizations
which are trying to adopt Teaching at the Right Level,
to help them do that as best as they can.
- Good morning sir.
- All the government primary schools have been covered
under this program.
There has been a significant improvement
within a very short period of time.
I believe that Teaching at Right Level is a must.
It has no substitute.
- Last year we reached 8 million children.
We must make sure that all children will learn to read.
And then once you do that in a country the size of India,
why can't it be done globally?
(metal clanging)
- The Teaching at the Right Level program in Zambia,
has been implemented in 1,100 schools.
And next year the program will go to 1,800 schools.
When you see kids learning, you see kids light up
and feel empowered.
Teaching at the Right Level
is one way of empowering these children
that I think could be really meaningful
throughout their lives.
- Kids are not resistant to learning,
it's just the way you package it.
(children singing)
I think we're giving back children their childhood.
That's the Teaching at the Right Level.
Its about my self esteem that I am somebody
and then I'm gonna grow.
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