With immense help from two wonderful ladies, Divya Nawale and Monica Szczupider who joined us in Pench this month, we have gotten through the bulk of our work.
This month, we began work on our reading program baseline study. Before we open up the library to our students in Pench, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, we wished to determine the as is state of affairs. Our focus remained on two major components of the reading program- the fluency of reading and content knowledge. The students in the region of Pench grapple with similar problems in the education sphere as those in other remote locations in many parts of India.
With lack of resources, reading takes a back seat in many educational institutions across the country. This situation, we hope we can better through a robust reading program and a library full of books.
The entire process was one that was very interesting; for us, to discover the results of our reading assessments and for the students to lay their hands such beautifully written and illustrated books! There was an air of excitement amongst the students.
After all, it was the first time they each got to own a library card and take a reading assessment.
Here is a look at how one school fared in the reading assessment.
Lastly, we would like to thank our volunteers Divya and Monica for extending all their help to this project.
We now look forward, with a lot of eagerness, to inaugurate our library and begin the reading program.
(The E-Base library is a humble attempt to open up the world of books to the students of Pench. The importance of reading for a holistic education cannot be discounted and the E-Base library strives to fill this gap that exists by bringing to the students books from all around the world. With a choice of books on biodiversity, science, environmental conservation, Gondi folktales and encyclopedias, in both, Hindi and English, the library not only augments their general awareness and knowledge of their surroundings and its relation to the world but also inculcates an appreciation for their rich Gondi roots.)