NIPUN BHARAT MISSION - GOVERNANCE

News: Maximising India’s demographic dividend through foundational literacy and numeracy

 

What's in the news?

       Numeracy skills in the early years can predict future academic success.

       They help grasp complex math and enhance problem-solving abilities, supporting cognitive development like memory and information processing.

 

Key takeaways:

       Given that 90% of a child’s brain development occurs between the ages of three to eight, the foundational stage of education becomes extremely critical.

 

NIPUN Bharat Mission:

Aim:

       To create an enabling environment to ensure universal acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy.

 

Target:

       It will enable every child to achieve the desired learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy by the end of Grade 3 by 2026-27.

 

Implementation:

       NIPUN Bharat will be implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education.


Mechanism:

       A five-tier implementation mechanism will be set up at the national-state-district-block-school level in all states and UTs for the mission.

 

Funding:

       No additional funding is being allocated for the mission. Instead, money is being allocated from the Samagra Shiksha scheme, which saw a 20% drop in its budget in 2021.

 

Objectives:

       Foundational skills enable to keep children in class thereby reducing the dropouts and improving transition rate from primary to upper primary and secondary stages.

       Activity based learning and a conducive learning environment will improve the quality of education.

       Innovative pedagogies such as toy-based and experiential learning will be used in classroom transactions thereby making learning a joyful and engaging activity.

       Intensive capacity building of teachers will make them empowered and provide greater autonomy for choosing the pedagogy.

       Holistic development of the child by focusing on different domains of development like physical and motor development, socio-emotional development, literacy and numeracy development, cognitive development, life skills etc. which are interrelated and interdependent, which will be reflected in a Holistic Progress Card.

 

Significance:

       Foundational literacy and numeracy is one of the goals under the National Education Policy 2020.