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News

Pratham award for NGO

AID India, a non-governmental organisation working to improve education among rural children, was recently honoured in the United States. The NGO was presented with the `SF Bay Area chapter Achievement Award' for its pioneering work in improving the quality of learning in Tamil Nadu.

Pratham, an organisation that supports various education initiatives, has instituted the award. Anil Shah, president of Pratham, USA, presented the award to AID India secretary Balaji Sampath at a function held recently by Indians settled in the U.S. Dr. Balaji said, "This is an award for all our village volunteers."

Pratham financially supported AID India's study. The community-based learning method found an improvement of 88 per cent in reading quality over a period of three months in 182 schools. The State adopted AID India's method in 7,300 schools across seven districts with a plan to extend it to primary schools in all 30 districts.

"This effort has shown that innovative educational methods and working closely with the government can improve the quality of learning significantly. The model in which the programme was conceived and developed has made it scaleable to villages, with a vision of reaching all the 30,000 village schools and nearly three million students in the State," Dr. Balaji said.

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