FAQs
Q. Is the software package fully developed?
A. Yes, the product has been in production mode for two years, with consistent results.
Q. Is the software package stable or does it require extensive support?
A. We have spent a lot of time to make sure it will run with almost zero technical support. It is used in remote villages where support is a luxury. Even so, we always have Master Trainers and Quality Controllers patrolling every district and block in which we operate to ensure that courses run smoothly without interruption.
Q. Do you have all the support, all the processes, systems, and organisation in place?
A. Yes, we have run up to 300 centres with military precision. We have manuals, we have procedures, we have accountability, we have management information systems, we have quality control staff and quality control systems.
Q. How are you able to deliver this on a large scale?
A. Our team contains expert trainers and managers from diverse backgrounds - from the Indian Army and from the dotcom hotspots of the US. We are experienced in large roll-outs.
Q. Can anyone train students on TARA Akshar?
A. No, all training must be given by instructors who have been trained by TARAhaat Ltd (the Indian licensing authority) or ReadingWise (outside India).
Q. What qualifications must an instructor have?
A. The prerequisite for a instructor is that they have successfully completed 10 years of schooling, and that they have good communication skills. It is also preferable that they live in or near to the locality where they will be delivering the training. Then they must do the authorised TARA Akshar Instructor Course, and pass their exam.
Q. How long do you train the instructors?
A. The initial Instructors Course lasts 8 days full time. The instructors must then prove they can deliver by graduating a minimum of 70% of students starting the course within 1 month. All student exams are marked by TARA Akshar Head Office. Instructors who do not achieve 70% must retrain on the full 6 day course.
All instructors must attend refresher trainings.
Q. Can the course be delivered as a self-paced online course?
A. No. Computers have brought us many advances, but they still cannot substitute for a first-class live instructor in the classroom.
Q. What topics do you cover in the Instructor Course?
A.
How to control students and how to communicate with them;
How to use a computer;
How to use the TARA Akshar software;
How to deal with difficult or slow students;
How to mobilize students.
Q. What resources do you need for the courseroom?
A.
A supply of electricity for at least two hours a day. (Two hours will charge the UPS enough for one batch.)
A desktop or a laptop with at least 256mb RAM
Good quality speakers in working order
A battery with a life of at least 1 hour (if a laptop), or a UPS or inverter with at least one hour storage.
A mains stabiliser
At least three sets of special TARA Akshar Playing Cards
One set of special TARA Akshar Large Flash Cards
One pair of special TARA Akshar writing books for each student
A special TARA Akshar alphabet poster - one for each student
Pencils
Reading Club material supplied by TARA Akshar
Q. How long do lessons take?
A. The courses sessions last 100 minutes per day per batch.
Q. How many students are there in one batch?
A. Six is optimum. Eight is OK with experienced instructors. The smaller the batch, the more likely all students in the batch will pass.
Q. How important is the quality of the instructor?
A. Very important. That's why we train our Master Trainers very thoroughly, and ensure that our Master Trainers train the Instructors thoroughly.
Q. Do you ever fire instructors?
A. Oh yes, although one should try retraining them first. If they don't keep up the pass rate, we have to take action.
Q. Don't you sometimes get "bad" batches of difficult students?
A. No, it is never the students' fault. If they are not progressing, it is the instructor's fault. Some students will take longer than others, but a good instructor will get every student through it.
Q. What about students with learning difficulties?
A. They tend to self-select themselves out of these kinds of classes. However, we do have to some techniques to cope with this situation so such students do not need to drop out.
Q. Is the course timing critical?
A. Yes, the instructor must ensure that the 100 minutes is adhered to, and lessons are neither longer nor shorter.
The instructor must ensure that sessions start on time and finish on time.
Students must attend every day for 6 days a week for 35 days.
Q. Why 100 minutes?
A. Because studies have shown that students recall the first 20 minutes of a lesson well, and the last 20 minutes well. So we have 20 minute sessions - five of them, but we switch the focus from reading (visual + aural skills on the computer) to writing (visio-spatial kinetic skills not on the computer) every 20 minutes. 100 minutes is both the maximum amount of study that non-educated people can do in one go without losing attention, AND it is the maximum time that Indian rural housewives want to give to classes for socio-economic reasons.
Q. What happens in the 100 minutes?
A. Each day’s session consists of 5 twenty-minute sections.
Section 1 is lessons on the computer.
Section 2 is writing practice off the computer on slate and/or special TARA Akshar writing books.
Section 3 is lessons on the computer.
Section 4 is writing practice off the computer on slate and/or special TARA Akshar writing books.
Section 5 is lessons on the computer.
There are no gaps or breaks between the sections.
Q. What costs and resources do I have to consider to deliver this in my area?
A.
Computer
UPS/Inverter
Trainer stipend
Train-The-Trainer fees to us - see menu option on the left called "How to Obtain It"
Purchase of small cards, large cards, writing books and posters from us.
Q. If I want to train 1000 students in my area in one year, how much will it cost me altogether?
A. The current cost on a reasonable scale is approximately Rs 2,500($60) per student.
Q. Is it feasible to ask students themselves to pay something for their classes?
A. You may be able to have some of them contribute Rs 30/-. But don't make it mandatory.
Q. How do your results compare to the Indian Government's NLM Total Literacy Movement in the past?
A. It is very difficult to judge the success of that campaign because there were no coordinated results published which showed the basic parameters, such as how many started, how many finished and how may passed.
Q. How does your testing of students compare to the NLM test?
A. We only test reading and writing, not arithmetic and composition.
Q. Aren't we better off using TCS's CBFL system? It uses pattern-recognition as a technique. It's an "Analytic" (learn letters in the context of words) system as opposed to a "Synthetic" (learn words after letters) system. What do you use?
A. One thing that HAS been fully agreed in the field of teaching people to read is that no one techqnique should be used exclusively, or you will get poor results. A pattern-recognition/Analytic system is just one kind of visual system, and ignores students who do better with synthetic visual systems, aural systems and visio-spatial systems.
We get good results because we use a wide range of techniques to make sure every student has a chance to learn to read, PLUS we use an extremely powerful visual memory association technique. Having said that, TARA Akshar is primarily a Synthetic system. But at the end of the day, it's the results that count, and our results are better than anyone else's.