227 Crore Words Uttered in 11 Days: Tamil Nadu Students Set Record in ‘Reading Marathon’ as Part of ‘Illam Thedi Kalvi’

The first of its kind, 12-day reading marathon movement organized by the Department of School Education as part of ‘Illam Thedi Kalvi’ (Education at doorstep) Scheme, as many as 227 crore words have been uttered by 17 lakh students from classes 2 to 8 with the help of an app called Read Along launched by the department.

The Department of School Education has set up home-based education centers in all districts in the state to rectify the learning gap caused to school children owing to Covid-19. Currently, over 33 lakh students are benefiting from the scheme. The reading movement titled ‘Reading Marathon’ was held from June 1 to 12 aiming to improve the reading skills of the students in Tamil Nadu.

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Of these, a total of 227 crore words were correctly read by the school children as of June 11. Meanwhile, school education officials said, ‘From the beginning, the reading movement has been welcomed by the children. Volunteers trained students using a ‘Google Read Along’ app via mobile phones and the students used the mobile phones of their parents. Moreover, students from Lalgudi in Trichy district, Alanganallur and Melur blocks in Madurai, and Gudiyatham in Vellore are leading in word reading. Incentives will be given to the best performing educational centers,’ said officials.

‘The students were interested in playing word games and at the end of each game, they were excited in collecting the rewards on the app. Several such programmes would also be conducted to improve the reading habit of school children in the near future,’ the officials said.

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