Programs - PEP

Primary English Program (PEP)

PEP is primarily delivered in urban schools. It is taught by short-on-time English-speaking corporate professionals, college students, and community volunteers who have been trained by Step Up For India. Each individual volunteer spends as little as 10 to 20 hours a year, The program brings government school children to their textbook levels in English in a well defined, highly participatory process, in the shortest time possible.

Impact Measurement

Beneficiaries

  • Students in the 4th and 5th grade in schools located in proximity to the volunteering organisation

Timeline

  • Each batch of about 35 students undergoes the 120 hours long PEP in a
    two year time-frame taught across four terms

Structure

  • Each 1-hour session is taught by a pair of volunteers

  • The entire term could be taught by a team of 6-15 volunteers associated with an institution (corporates, colleges, service organizations, etc.)

  • The session is fixed into the school time-table after discussion between volunteering team and school administration and takes place either before or after lunch break

  • Volunteers do not need to take anything into or out of the classroom and just need to use the material that is already in the classroom to teach

  • Volunteers will log their sessions in a SUFI proprietary easy-to-use app

Teaching and Learning Material

  • Designed to support learning at the quickest pace, while keeping in mind that the children have no external support

  • Volunteer instruction books detailing usage of time and material, posters with built-in support, audio tracks for songs and concepts, flashcards, etc, enable any volunteer to teach effectively

  • Colorful textbooks, exciting workbooks, large and bright posters, conversation modules, performance and behavior prizes, story books, etc, make the learning process enjoyable for the children

  • All the materials are integrated with carefully thought-through, proprietary teaching methodologies to create a program package that ensures maximum impact

Training

  • Volunteers need to be fluent in English and need to be able to commit the time to make a difference

  • Volunteers do not need to have prior teaching experience or know the local language

  • Volunteers will undergo a 3-hour training workshop to help them understand the methodologies, content, and teaching aids that they will have to use

Evaluation

  • ASER tests are conducted at the start and again upon completion of the program. These tests measure the impact of the program on reading and comprehension abilities

  • The children undergo tests at the end of every unit that act as revision and reinforce concepts

  • Volunteers are able to track each child’s progress through the SUFI proprietary app

  • Sponsors of the program can view the progress of all the classes that they support through the SUFI proprietary app that displays student level details as well

Current news for PEP

  • The PEP is currently underway in 78 classrooms in 38 schools across Bangalore and Hassan

  • It is being taught by 400 volunteers benefitting 2500 children

Content and Curriculum

  • Identification of letter sounds

  • Accelerated reading through phonics

  • Techniques to learn sight words

  • Level of reading gradually rising over the program to include complex words

  • Culmination in building skills in children to be able to read any text in English

  • Thematic vocabulary and vocabulary related to content

  • Focused Q&A constructs

  • Workbook activities

  • Verbal discussions around content to cover most common situations

  • Simple thematic conversation games based on grammar concepts taught

  • Picture-based conversation

  • Scripted conversation in the form of plays

  • Guided conversation through discussions around stories and poems

  • Free-flowing conversation around general topics during projects

  • Fragmentation and word building techniques to aid spelling

  • Sentence constructs through activities and Q&A associated with each unit

  • Project-led individual expression skills introduced and developed