Balasakhi programme is designed to help children who are identified by their class teachers as lagging behind academically. With a little extra help and encouragement, these children can make substantial progress in basic math and language skills within 2 months or less. It is intended to reduce the risk of dropping out of school.

The "Kannada Vachana Karya Krama" package, developed by Dr. T Padmini, Educationist and Pratham trustee, is effectively used for building language skills in children. This is based on research and tried out on different groups successfully. It is a remedial reading package intended to correct the graded difficulty at four levels namely Saralakshara, Gunithakshara, Sajathi Otthakshara, Vijathi Otthakshara. It also takes care of pronounciation difficulty. This package, designed to achieve the desired levels of reading in 40 sessions is supported by Pre and Post evaluation.

• Targets government school children from Std II to Std VII.

• Aims at helping these children achieve language skills.

• The Balasakhi, - 'a child's friend' normally works with 20 children identified by the school teachers.

• Balasakhis are sent to school on the request of the Headmaster and they work under the supervision/guidance of the school teachers.

• The Balasakhi must be at least Std XII, must be from the local community with ample enthusiam to work with children.

This remedial education programme can also run in any community location to facilitate children who are already in schools but require remedial learning assistance. Such centres are called In-house Balaskhi centres where the balasakhis from the local community are trained to help in remedial education programme. These centres operate for about 2-3 hours and are usually run after school hours in a place close to the child's home.

Once children have been taught how to read it is crucial to sustain their interest by cultivating a reading habit. To facilitate the learning and reading process for these children in the slums, Pratham Mysore has now launched libraries to build access to books. Young girls in Shanthinagar and the neighbouring slums now have access to computer education through Pratham Mysore.