Rural students often face problems in
reading, and understanding simple text books in Hindi and English. To overcome
this challenge, Google has come up with an app called Bolo, which aims at
helping primary school children read and learn smoothly. The app aims to aid
students improve their Hindi and English reading abilities. The beta version of
Bolo is operational in an offline mode.
As per the ASER 2018, only 27.2% of class
III students were able to read the text books meant for class II students,
while only 50.3% of class V students were able to read the books prescribed to
class III students. “Learning gaps have serious implications on the future of
the child,” says Nitin Kashyap, product manager, Google. Bolo will soon be
available in other regional languages too.
“Efforts are being made to bridge the learning gap, but the pace has been slow.
Three major roadblocks include lack of access to quality education, limited
infrastructure and barriers to learn outside the classrooms,” Nitin adds.
Using this speech-technology based app, kids
can read interesting stories, learn new words and its pronunciation all by
themselves. There are about 50 and 40 stories in Hindi and English,
respectively. These stories are available free of cost. With the help of
built-in reading buddy – Diya, the app aims to inculcate reading habit among
students. Diya not only reads the text aloud when needed, but also explains the
meaning of English text in Hindi. At the end of the story, children can play
interesting word games and earn in-app awards.
Full report on www.educationtimes.com
Source: The Times of India dated 11 March, 2019
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