India

With a gift to Room to Read India, you can provide life-changing educational resources to children who face the greatest barriers in gaining a quality education. Every contribution goes toward the most pressing priorities, including: 

Literacy

Supporting early, pre-primary learning to help children succeed in school 

A child’s first classroom is their home, and, for many children, they are raised learning different dialects and languages than those used as the formal language of instruction at school. Not only might children be accustomed to different languages when they begin school, but they also might have experienced a different level of engagement with reading materials, with some kids having never been read to and thus possessing a limited understanding of written language.

Recognizing that these disparities leave many children behind their peers before they even start formal education, Room to Read helps children begin building foundational literacy skills earlier. By ensuring that every child has exposure to print materials, writing tools (such as how to hold a pencil), and experience hearing and saying basic vocabulary they will hear in school, Room to Read can help mitigate learning gaps before children enter Grade 1.

To do so, Room to Read develops a comprehensive package of pre-primary learning materials and curricular content that could help the earliest learners be prepared to build from their foundational knowledge in Grade 1 and beyond, extending the impact of Room to Read’s Literacy Program to support student outcomes before and during primary school. In 2025, your timely support can help develop and roll out new pre-primary resources, including curricular materials and trainings for educators in select regions, to ensure that children have the opportunity to enter school ready to learn and cultivate foundational literacy skills. 

Scaling effective literacy practices to reach more children, more quickly 

In India, Room to Read will be increasingly focused on scale: As an already-trusted partner, more state and district-level education ministries are eager to collaborate with Room to Read to improve how students learn to read and write, and to increase access to child-friendly libraries in schools. In the coming years, this will include expanding our collaborative trainings and support to education ministries in 1-2 more states, ensuring more educators are learning effective teaching practices, gaining access to Room to Read’s evidence-based learning materials, and integrating engaging library and reading activities for students to cultivate a love for reading and learning.

Your contribution will accelerate the rate at which Room to Read can meet this increasing demand to serve as a resource to more educators with trainings and tools to improve how primary students learn how to read and write. 

Gender Equality  

Integrating life skills into government education systems 

Room to Read recognizes the urgency to extend the reach of its life skills curriculum to girls across India by integrating components of the curriculum into state and national education guidelines. In 2025, Room to Read aims to work with state-level government education councils to collaborate on a life skills curriculum (based off Room to Read’s curriculum) that can be implemented by teachers during the typical school day for students in grades 6 to 10. Initially, Room to Read aims to test this work in the state of Telangana in 2025, while continuing to work with other state governments to integrate core components of its life skills curriculum across more schools. 

A portion of your investment will help test this important work in Telangana, paving the way for more schools to instill critical life skills among adolescents, support all students to value their education and stay in school through graduation, and cultivate communities that are prepared to shift gender norms. 

Including boys as advocates for gender equality 

Following a landscape analysis of the gender norms and masculinity attitudes in India — which found that boys ages 10-16 feel societal expectations for them to embody stereotypical masculine behaviors and an overall lack of awareness about gender equality issues among adolescents — Room to Read will roll out a Life Skills for Equality Project (LSEP) in select states in India in 2025.

Through LSEP, Room to Read incorporates life skills sessions aimed at helping boys advance their own education while also giving them the knowledge and tools to advance gender equality in their own lives. This is done through the delivery of a gender-transformative curriculum that focuses on critical themes such as gender roles, gender norms, masculinity, relationships, addressing conflict and mental health, among others. Room to Read will ensure its LSEP has the highest impact possible by reaching boys and girls who face numerous intersectional vulnerabilities, including living below the poverty line, working as domestic laborers, speaking minority languages, and being from religious and ethnic minority communities. Room to Read is also prioritizing reaching boys in regions where girls are most vulnerable to the gendered consequences of climate change on their education, including increased time spent on household energy collection and increased susceptibility to early marriage and unskilled employment. 

Your support will be crucial to the success of this initiative by ensuring adequate training, mentorship and support are available to adolescent boys participating in this pilot project. Based on the success of this project, Room to Read will adapt and expand this work to reach more boys in the coming years, ultimately opening opportunities to systemically tackle gender inequalities and attitudes in education.