Govt unveils foundational learning, numeracy mission
Premium- The new scheme will be implemented by the union education ministry in collaboration with the states through the flagship school education program called Samagra Shikhsa
New Delhi: The union government on Monday announced a new mission to improve foundational learning and numeracy competency of early graders in school. The Centre has now set a target of achieving it by 2026-27 instead of 2025 as envisaged in the new National Education Policy.
The ‘NIPUN Bharat Mission’ will provide an “enabling environment to ensure universal acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy, so that every child achieves the desired learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy by the end of Grade 3, by 2026-27".
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The new education policy had underlined that foundational learning levels in numeracy and literacy should be achieved across the country by 2025. The covid-led disruptions since March 2020 seem to have delayed the deadline.
The new scheme will be implemented by the union education ministry in collaboration with the states through the flagship school education program called Samagra Shikhsa. The scheme has also the provision of tracking students’ performance, conducting assessment at the central level, state level and possibly by a third party.
It will be done via a “five-tier implementation mechanism" at the “national-state- district- block- school level in all States and UTs".
Foundational learning has been a constant drawback in Indian schools and the annual ASER report by education non-profit organisation Pratham has shown for successive years how a bulk of the Indian school students at the elementary level cannot even read, understand, and do basic arithmetic.
At least 25% of school children in the four-eight age group do not have age-appropriate cognitive and numeracy skills, making for a massive learning deficit at a very early stage, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) released in January 2020. Just 37.4% of children below six are able to recognize letters and only 25.6% can do additions, according to the report. Similarly, only 34.8% of children in Class II can read a text meant for the level below. And at Class III, only 50.8% can read texts meant for their juniors two levels below, as per the ASER report.
Education non-profits like Central Square Foundation and Pratham have provided input for the scheme. Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said the new scheme would help in improving learning outcomes of children in the early years of schooling.
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