Children in Bangladesh tend to spend lot of time in browsing phones rather than any other devices. That’s why The Reading Enhancement for Advancing Development (READ) project by Save the Children has developed a ‘Reading Hub’. This reading hub contains text-Book Based e-Content, approved by National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), 169 supplementary reading materials or story books for children, three interactive learning Android apps for the students of grade I-III, and all these can be accessed and downloaded for free!
Although Bangla is our mother tongue, many early grader children struggle to learn Bangla. According to Ministry of Primary and Mass Education’s National Student Assessment 2013, 25 per cent of students in grade III cannot read short, simple, mostly imaginative texts, locate and interpret directly stated information, identify correct word orders of simple sentences, identify the meaning and correct spelling of high frequency words, recognize correct use of some punctuation in Bangla.
READ has been trying to produce interactive reading materials that can motivate children to learn to read. About 8.5 million people in Bangladesh use smartphones, and the number is increasing day by day. Interactive applications can be turned mobile phones into a smart learning device for children. Realizing this, READ project has developed the ‘Reading Hub’ and READ android apps.
The READ project, implemented by Save the Children in Bangladesh and supported by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has been working on improving Bangla reading skill of early grade children in Bangladesh.
READ closely works with the Government of Bangladesh, particularly the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MOPME) Directorate for Primary Education (DPE), to rapidly roll-out an Early Grade Reading (EGR) intervention addressing classroom instruction, home and community support, and materials availability so critical to children’s reading success.
