Challenges of Reading Comprehension in Early Primary Classrooms of India

The present paper provides details of a significant classroom based research study that explored the status of reading and comprehension instructions in early primary classrooms of Indian context. It is significant as there has been dearth of research in any of these fields—early reading, reading comprehension in early school years, and early grade classrooms in India. The study was exploratory, descriptive and qualitative in nature. It examines the nature of comprehension instructions, quality of reading experiences, whether reading experiences are meaningful for learners or not, kinds of reading materials present and accessible to students and nature of their engagement with texts in second grade classrooms. It describes various challenges of reading comprehension in early primary classrooms and evaluates the situation in light of the recommendations provided in the policy documents.