36 govt-run Child care institutions to use Magic English Learning Buddy
*TN State Child Protection Society launches a Functional English Skills Project in partnership with Karadi Path Education Company
* The programme is estimated to directly benefit 1500 students and 100 teachers
The Department of Social Defence, The State Child Protection Society launched the project – Magic English Learning Buddy – along with a teacher’s android app, powered by Karadi Path Pedagogy across 36 child care institutions today. Mr. Amar Kushawha, Director of Social Defence and Secretary, State Child Protection Society inaugurated the programme developed by Karadi Path Education Company.
Magic English learning buddy, an English language enhancement programme has been curated for children in government-run Child care institutions (CCIs). The programme has been designed to develop listening comprehension, conversational speaking and reading skills using an indigenously created set of tools and processes powered by Karadi Path’s pedagogy. The children will learn English they way they will learn their mother tongue or any other language naturally from the environment.
Speaking at the launch, Mr. Amar Kushawha, Director of Social Defence and Secretary, State Child Protection Society shared his inspiring life journey starting from a hamlet in Uttar Pradesh in a Hindi-medium school to becoming an IAS officer in Tamil Nadu who speaks Tamil and Hindi fluently. He reiterated the need to practise English fearlessly in classrooms. “Practice, practice and practice. We don’t learn language from Grammar rules. We learn it when we use the language without inhibitions,” he said.
Mr Raj Sravanakumar, Joint Director, State Child Protection Society and State Commission for Protection of Child Rights spoke about how he was confident that the Training of Teachers (ToT) planned will enable not just the students but also the teachers to speak English confidently.
The programme will provide experiential learning in English to the students by way of mime, music, storytelling, and theatre-based activities. The digital components of the Karadi Path programme will run on the LED TVs installed in the child care institutions. Students will learn English through audiobooks and picture books and interactive experiences led by theatre and voice actors.
The programme would be implemented across 24 districts in Tamil Nadu including Chennai, Villupuram, Ranipet, Vellore, Sivagangai, Virudhunagar, Thoothukudi, The Nilgiris, Pudhukottai, Tenkasi and Coimbatore. Constant teacher-training by a cohort of specialists in pedagogy has also been planned by the department.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. C P Viswanath, Managing Director, Karadi Path Education Company said that being recognised by the state departments is a validation of the passionate work the Karadi Path team has been involved in to close the global literacy gap in English by 2030.
“It is a great moment for Team Karadi Path. Multiple third-party impact-studies have shown that Karadi Path’s unconditional immersive approach leads to an 11X increase in classroom outcomes over conventional approaches of teaching English, especially for first generation learners, and we are committed to delivering similar outcomes at the CCIs of Tamil Nadu,” he said.
The launch is followed by a two-day programme that includes a teacher training workshop and demo classes by teachers, supported by Karadi Path trainers, along with discussions as to how implementation challenges can be addressed.
Karadi Path is being implemented in government-run and tribal schools across different states of India by CSR and government partners including the NSE Foundation, Godrej and Boyce, JSW and a FICCI, US-AID, UK-AID, World Bank Collective.
