TAL comes out of Katha, a non-profit publisher and education organisation in Delhi. It was created by Katha's founder, Geeta Dharmarajan, who received the Padma Shri for her work in literature and education.
Geeta Dharmarajan founded Katha in 1988 and has spent the years since working on children's reading and on the method the books use. She wrote or edited much of the material, chose the stories, and shaped how they're taught. TAL is the current form of that work, gathered into eight books.
Katha is founded in New Delhi.
TADAA enters classrooms; higher-order literary thinking begins.
Katha School of Entrepreneurship (KSE).
KITES — Katha Info Tech and eCom School.
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, by a 100-member world jury.
The complete TAL 1–8 series in print.
Katha sums up its thinking in eleven short lines. Mentors often read one at the start of a session. Here they are in full.
Story is not a tool; Story IS learning.
Child first, joy first, story first. Literacy blooms when hearts thirst.
Curriculum must answer life before it answers schooling.
Grow the Me, to serve the We. MeWe builds nations.
Translate stories, transform lives. Link our nation's diversities.
When every story teaches every subject, knowledge comes from every side.
Read the World to break stereotypes, to build a society that cares.
Think, Ask, Discuss, Act — and the child's Aha! is born.
Assess by a child's Ruchi — a remarkable child is not merely markable.
Thiruvalluvar: learn thoroughly what should be learnt; then stand true to it.
Loka samastha sukhino bhavantu — may all beings be happy and free.