Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi to participate
A global event featuring leaders from UNESCO, Government of India, British Council, Rotary and well known Educational Institutions, will take place at the Chennai Trade Centre, from March 3, 4 and 5. Rotary is joining hands with the Government and other agencies to ensure that India becomes 100% literate in near future. 6 literacy heroes who have done yeomen service in the field of education will be awarded at this Summit.
Mr. Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Human Resources Development, GOI, and Rtn. John Germ, President, Rotary International will inaugurate the 3 day “Rotary South Asia Literacy Summit”. Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, Mr. Alan Gemmel, Director, British Council, Ms. Racquel Shroff, Group CEO, Global Education, Mr. Shigeru Aoyagi, Director & UNESCO Representative to India, along with a galaxy of experts and 4000 Rotarians are participating.
According to Rtn. PDG Sekhar Mehta, Co-Convenor of the summit, “Rotary India Literacy Mission’s (RILM) focus is on “Total Literacy and Quality Education”. The program has gained traction and today many School Children have been brought back to schools and thousands of teachers have been trained across India.
This mission wishes to achieve the literacy goals through its program called T-E-A-C-H:
T –Teacher Training, E – e-Learning in Schools, A – Adult Literacy, C – Children back to School and H – Happy Schools.”
Achievements of the TEACH program so far:
· Trained 19,467 teachers in primary schools.
· Established 9,009 E-learning Centres in schools.
· Educated 61,500 adult non-literates.
· Sent 45,107 children back to school.
· Upgraded 1420 schools to Happy schools to curtail student dropouts.
Mehta added, “Each of these 5 verticals, with specific focus are interlinked with others, so as to contribute to the goal of Total Literacy. Understanding the enormity of the task, Rotary has decided to adopt and implement the T-E-A-C-H strategy. Rotary is forging strong partnerships with the Government, Corporate, National/State specific NGOs as well as international organizations in this countrywide endeavour. 10 MoUs will be signed at the summit with different organisations, giving a great thrust to this activity.
Website: www.rotaryteach.org/chennaisummit