The Directorate of Education, Goa, in partnership with Pratham Books, launched the ‘Goa is Reading’ initiative at the hands of the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant recently.
MAIN OBJECTIVE
The main objective behind the 'Goa is Reading' initiative is to promote reading habits among young children by setting up a structured framework at schools.
JOINING HANDS THROUGH THE INITIATIVE
Director, SCERT, Nagara Honnekeri said, “The Directorate of Education, Goa, is committed to achieving the NEP goals and nurturing a love for reading in every child.
The launch event was attended by principals and teachers from across the state.
Speaking on the occasion, CEO, Pratham Books, Himanshu Giri said that it was a great opportunity for Pratham Books to partner with the Directorate of Education, Goa, with support from a CSR initiative of Indus Towers, so as to share the joy of reading with children across the state of Goa through the 'Goa is Reading' initiative.
WHAT IS THE INITIATIVE ALL ABOUT?
The ‘Goa is Reading’ initiative is in line with the recommendations of the National Education Policy (2020) and the NIPUN Bharat guidelines.
Schools and teachers will have access to a large repository of openly licensed high-quality English and Marathi children’s storybooks and supplementary resources for Grades I to VIII via the Pratham Books Reading Programme.
These resources, which can be read for free, will be available in English and Marathi on Pratham Books’ platform, StoryWeaver (www.storyweaver.org.in).
ABOUT STORYWEAVER
Children can access StoryWeaver (www.storyweaver.org.in), an open source digital platform, which is freely accessible and has multilingual children’s storybooks from Pratham Books.
On StoryWeaver, users can read, create, translate and download stories for free. Today, the platform offers over 51,000 storybooks in 333 languages.
READING DIGITALLY
This initiative is supported by telecom tower company, Indus Towers, as part of their Social Responsibility programme.
Circle CEO, Maharashtra & Goa Circle, Indus Towers Limited, Dinesh Arora, said, "In the last couple of years, internet connectivity through mobile towers has expanded access to education and technology. We congratulate the state of Goa for introducing ‘Goa is Reading’, an initiative that promotes reading habits among students through both physical and digital storybooks in English, Marathi and Konkani."