Delhi’s ‘Reading Melas’ a hit among students, parents

Sundar is one of the several thousand students who attended ‘Reading Melas’, an initiative by the Delhi government to turn non-readers into readers under its Chunauti scheme.

Until few weeks ago, reading full sentences was a distant dream for 13-year-old Sundar Kumar who now finds himself fairly competent in reading. “I used to get confused while reading complex sentences, but now I read out stories to my younger sister,” says the Class VI student of Shaheed Hemu Kalani School, Lajpat Nagar.

Sundar is one of the several thousand students who attended ‘Reading Melas’, an initiative by the Delhi government to turn non-readers into readers under its Chunauti scheme. After a base line test conducted in Sundar’s school in September, Sundar was selected in the non-reader Nishtha section following which he was not only given extra-conditioning by the teachers in classrooms, but also taught by volunteers and teachers at the reading melas for six consecutive weeks.

“My wife and I are not literate. We want our children to study hard but we don’t have means to send them to private schools. I haven’t seen Sundar taking so much interest in reading books as he does now. I feel so happy to see him reading,” says Sundar’s proud father Kapil Singh, an electrician.

Similarly, parents of 16-year-old Vipin Singh, a class VIII student of Kautilya Government Sarvodaya Bal Vidhyalay, feels that their son, who wasn’t able to read out simple words until last month, can now read complex and long sentences. “Vipin wasn’t very active in studies and we got really disappointed when he was selected in Nishtha section. But it was a blessing in disguise and now he reads out poems to us,” says Vipin’s father Vijay Kumar, a domestic helper.

Several parents, who also attended the melas, claimed to have learned reading and writing basic sentences. “Earlier, I couldn’t read or write but after being taught by the volunteers at the reading melas, I can now sign instead of putting thumb prints,” says Sunita Kumari, a resident of Lajpat Nagar. “We tried our best to cover all the students and have seen immense change in some. There are several students who have travelled this journey from words to sentence and sentences to paragraphs,” claims BK Sharma, principal of Shaheed Hemu Kalani school. 

“Our major target behind conducting these melas was to bring every student at one level,” he added. The first reading Mela was conducted on October 22 at as many as 50 locations in the city. Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia had set November 14, Children’s Day, as the date to achieve the target of turning all non-readers into readers. 

Source | http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report-delhi-s-reading-melas-a-hit-among-students-parents-2273470

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Pralhad Jadhav

Senior Manager @ Library

Khaitan & Co

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