IIT Madras to Educate Underprivileged Children

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras has taken the initiative to educate underprivileged children under teaching Reading Project (TRP). It is a pilot initiative of IIT-M which is changing the lives of young minds. Under this initiative, IIT-M will train the students from five corporation schools in Chennai and five government schools in Bihar. A total number of 200 children from Chennai and 500 children from Bihar will be benefitted through this initiative.

Also read: - Startup Hasura and IIT Madras to Teach App Development

Last year also, a total number of 700 children were trained under this initiative, and all these children were from underprivileged sections of society of Chennai and Bihar. These children were given basic learning following which they can now read their English textbooks and regional language textbooks.

It is a three-year programme which is being financially supported by Tamil Nadu News Print and Papers Limited. The company is funding a sum of Rs. 15 lakh every year under Corporate Social Initiative (CSR).

Also read: - Alumni Funds IIT Madras - Innovation Centre with $5 Million

Rajesh Kumar, Coordinator of TRP and Faculty at Department of Humanities, IIT-M revealed that the project had completed one year and it was highly successful. He further added that they had conducted a progress test for children and around 30 percent children scored 10 out of 10 in reading their English, Tamil and Hindi textbooks. On the other hand, around 40 percent children scored five out of ten which is quite satisfying.

He further explained that the governments of Pondicherry and Jharkhand are also planning to launch a similar kind of initiative for the underprivileged children in their states.