Reading marathon comes to an end in Tamil Nadu, 17 lakh students participate

CHENNAI: The 12-day reading marathon, which began on June 1, came to end on Sunday. It was organised by the school education department as part of the Illam Thedi Kalvi (ITK) scheme. Between June 1 and 11, 17 lakh students from classes 2 to 8 read 227 crore words in 8.6 lakh hours with the help of Read Along, an app launched by the department in association with Google.

The students read short stories and solved word puzzles. "The initiative was aimed at using technological intervention in promoting reading habit among students. The app helped them pronounce difficult words. At the end of each day, we also ranked education blocks based on the number of words students from each of them read," said K Elambahavath, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for ITK scheme.

Students used the mobile phones of their parents and ITK volunteers, said officials. "We also received positive feedback from parents as their children, who usually use mobile phones to play games, also spent a lot of time reading," officials said. As of Saturday, Lalgudi block in Tiruchy, Alanganallur and Melur blocks in Madurai were leading.

"The students were interested in playing word games and collecting the rewards on the app at the end of each game. There were 15 students in my class and we extended the classes in the last 12 days so that all the students could read. We were using two phones," said Ponroja, an ITK volunteer at Chennai Primary School at Varadharajanpet in Kodambakkam.

Officials said several such programmes would also be conducted to improve the reading habit of children in the future.

Mobile app helps children pronounce tough words

Between June 1 and 11, 17 lakh students from classes 2 to 8 read 227 crore words in 8.6 lakh hours with the help of Read Along, an app launched by the department in association with Google.