I Love Reading! (ILR) was initiated as Katha’s flagship program in 2008. The concept of providing an innovative reading and school transformation program was first put forward to the Delhi Government, to improve the reading skills of the children, from 1st to 5th standard, in the Government primary schools.  At each of the schools we work in, a class room is dedicated for ILR; the room is painted, in attractive colours, with the pictures from the story books we use. A small library is also set up so that children can browse through the books. We train the teachers there on ways to engage the students into learning.  The objective is to get the children not only to read but read at Grade-level. ILR is a ‘Bricks & Clicks’ Module based intervention in primary schools, to enhance the reading capabilities of the children and help them stay in schools

The program directly supports NIPUN Bharat Mission. 

The vital aspects of the program are to use innovative, fun methods to transform government primary schools to be effective and fun learning places for children, leading to high performance; train and support teachers to creatively engage students in learning by providing technology smart teaching methods and a great learning experience to children by providing digitised e-learning material through the Katha Khazana Reading App and Katha’s newly launched Portal (https://learn.katha.org/)

Highlights

• Operated in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat
• 1000+ schools impacted so far
• 4,00,000+ participating children and 6000+ government school teachers trained
• e-ILR Hubs set up to enhance digital learning
• Last Assessment year says that:
  • 99.99% of children improved their reading abilities. 
  • 32.7% of the total number of children impacted by ILR attained grade-level reading.
  • Average attendance in schools improved from 74.1% to 95%
  • 100% children like books and libraries
  • 95% of principals agreed that ILR effective and successful 
  • External evaluation study by Dr. Ambedkar University revealed that children of ILR have performed exceedingly well as compared to the other government schools by 5 mean points.
  • 100% of the ILR passed out children are in upper primary schools; enabling continuum of education.

Key Donors:

Per child cost for a year is INR 10,000

Tata Communication Ltd. FICCI, USAID, EDMC, MHRD, Oracle, Worldreader, Samhita, Ashoka Changemakers, Bata India Ltd, HCL Foundation, DASRA, Comic Relief, British Asian Trust, CAF-India, NSE Foundation, Australian High Commission 

Impact Report_I Love Reading

Millenium Alliance

AUD report