Tata Literacy

Tata Consultancy Services

Tata Literacy

Contact Solution Provider

Tata Consultancy Services
Mumbai
400 021
India
+91 (022) 6778 9999
corporate.cbfl@tcs.com

Solution Overview & Benefits

The Computer-Based Functional Literacy (CBFL) program initiated by the Tata Group aims to resolve India's adult illiteracy problem. The program has been developed by Tata Consultancy Services, Asia's largest software enterprise. The CBFL program uses a mix of methods to teach an uneducated person how to read in a fraction of the time that it takes to do this by conventional means (50 hours instead of 200 hours). These methods include:

  • Teaching software
  • Multimedia presentations
  • Printed material

The project employs animated graphics and a voiceover to explain how individual alphabets combine to give structure and meaning to various words. The TCS course, which uses puppets as the motif in the teaching process, has been designed from material developed by the National Literacy Mission, established by the Indian government in 1988 with the aim of eradicating adult illiteracy in the country. The mission's lessons, which have been deeply researched and formulated, are tailored to fit different languages and even dialects.

With an emphasis on learning words rather than alphabets, the project addresses thought processes with the objective of teaching these words in as short a time span as possible.

History & Development

Illiteracy is often synonymous with poverty. The written word can go a long way in empowering the less privileged. Traditionally it requires 200 hours of instruction--up to two years--to make a person literate. This leads to a high dropout rate. Convinced that economic development is related to literacy, TCS worked on a paradigm shift that would impact the 260 million illiterate in India. CBFL is a corporate-wide initiative started in the year 2000 to address and overcome impediments of literacy through information technology.

Availability

Publicly available: yes
Countries where available: India
Price range (USD): Contact supplier for quote

Additional Information