The students of about hundreds schools in and around Hyderabad can now boast of an added advantage of receiving training in soft skills and leadership programme, courtesy a noble initiative by the city youngsters.

As part of the Teach for Change project launched by the Passionate Foundation on Sunday, volunteers with good English proficiency will teach the students of class 6 to 10 every Saturday on various aspects of English language. This voluntary activity will begin from 2015 academic year in the eleven mandals, including Ameerpet, Himayathnagar, Khairatabad, Nampally, Secunderabad and others.

“The objective of the initiative is to improve the overall literacy standards at the government schools,” said Chaitanya, the founder of Passionate Foundation at the launch held at government school in Dharam Karan road.

“We are encouraging anyone with a passion to make a difference to apply under Teach for Change by logging to the website. Once selected, the volunteers would be trained over two weekends and they can start teaching at a government schools near them for two hours every Saturday.”

One of the guests and former Minister, J. Geetha Reddy, said that the communications skills were of utmost importance in today’s world and the programme would help make the students turn in to efficient and capable citizens.

Social activist Swami Agnivesh felt that there was a need for youngsters to usher in change in the society through various movements. He informed that 70 per cent of the schools in the country were run by the government and unless quality education is provided at these schools, the future of the students will be bleak.

Model and designer, Shilpa Reddy and actress Regina pledged their support to the cause on this occasion.