We have spent a lot of time to make sure the software will run perfectly with almost zero technical support. It is used in remote villages where support is tough to access. Even so, we always have Supervisors and Senior Supervisors patrolling all districts and blocks in which we operate to ensure that courses run smoothly without interruption.
Yes, we have run up to 500 centres with military precision. We have manuals, procedures, accountability systems, management information systems, staff quality control and quality control systems.
Our team includes expert trainers and managers from diverse backgrounds – ranging from the Indian Army to dotcom hotspots of the US. We are experienced in large roll-outs.
No, all training must be given by instructors who have been trained by Development Alternative Group (in India) or ReadingWise (outside India) in order to become an instructor for the students.
The prerequisite for an instructor is that they should have successfully completed 10 years of schooling, and have good communication abilities. It is preferable that they live in or near the locality where they will be delivering the training sessions. Then they must complete the authorised TARA Akshar+ Instructor Course, and pass their exam.
Eight students is an optimum number to conduct a session. Ten is OK with experienced instructors. The smaller the batch, the more likely all students in the batch will pass.
No, it is never the students’ fault. If they are not progressing, it is the instructor’s fault. Some students will take longer than others, but a good instructor will get every student through it.
Some students tend to opt-out themselves from such classes. However, we do have some techniques to cope with this situation so that such students do not drop out.
Yes, the instructor must ensure that the 100 minutes is adhered to, and lessons consumer neither greater nor lesser time. The instructor must ensure that sessions start on-time and finish on-time. Students must attend classes every day for 6 days a week for 56 days.
Studies have shown that students recall the first 20 minutes of a lesson well, and the last 20 minutes well. So we have 20 minute sessions – five of them, switching the focus from reading (visual + aural skills on the computer) to writing (visio-spatial kinetic skills not on the computer) every 20 minutes. 100 minutes is both the maximum amount of study that non-educated people can do in one go without losing attention; AND it is the maximum time that Indian rural housewives want to give to classes for socio-economic reasons.
It is very difficult to judge the success of that campaign because there were no coordinated results published which showed the basic parameters, such as how many started, how many finished and how may passed.
One thing that has been fully agreed in the field of teaching people to read is that no single technique should be used exclusively, otherwise poor results are likely. A pattern-recognition/Analytic system is just one kind of visual system, and ignores students who do better with synthetic visual systems, aural systems and visio-spatial systems. We get good results because we use a wide range of techniques to make sure every student has a chance to learn and read; PLUS we use an extremely powerful visual memory association technique. Having said that, TARA Akshar+ is primarily a Synthetic system. But at the end of the day, it’s the results that count, and our results are more authentic, conclusive and established than most other organizations.
Yes, the Gyan Chaupali can to customised to include the content on specific topics depending on the need of the funder. The intervention with the neo-literates can be reduced to a minimum of 3 months from a maximum of 6 months.
