Published date: June, 2024
A meaningful chat with Mr. Giridhar Rao (of Teacher Plus magazine) about the various aspects of choosing books, translations, illustrations, bilingual books, Soviet children’s books, non-fiction books and more.
Good children’s literature is necessary for Telugu’s health.
Suresh Kosaraju
Tell us a little bit about this changing Telugu-reading ability. What is your sense?
The picture is a complicated one, is it not? On the one hand, we have the ASER {Annual Status of Education Report] surveys telling is that a large proportion of 5th and 7th graders in government and low-fee paying private schools are not able to read even a 2nd grade Telugu text. On the other hand, there is the situation of Telugu students in high fee-paying English-medium schools. Although they may speak Telugu at home, Telugu reading is disappearing from their lives. Their exposure to written Telugu is very limited. These children are struggling to read even a 50-page Telugu novella; but they will read a 500-page Harry Potter novel in English with ease!