Dr Bijano Murry Odyuo
Pledge:
Let us join hands to ensure a conducive learning environment
Enabling all children to achieve foundational skills.
We pledge to make the school a place of joyful and experiential
Learning where children can use their language freely, ask
Questions freely, play freely, and where every child is respected.
Let us make the school as well as the home, a place for developing lifelong skills for reading with comprehension, writing
With purpose and understanding numeracy, in every child that
They can apply in their everyday life situations.
Let us strive to make education meaningful and joyful for each
Child of our country and make every child NIPUN.
‘Nipun’ is the Hindi word for proficient or skilled. The NIPUN Bharat pledge conveys the message that foundational learning impacts life-long learning in every person. The NEP 2020 gives highest priority to universal acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) skills at primary level. To achieve this, a National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat Mission has been set up by the Ministry of Education on priority. It was launched in the country on 5th July 2021 by the Prime Minister, with a vision to create an enabling environment for ensuring universal acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy, so that every child achieves the desired learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy at the end of Grade 3 by the year 2026-27.
The states and UTs in India have been directed to ensure that foundational learning of students from grade 1-3, not later than class 5, in the schools is strengthened through priorities and actionable agendas. The mission will focus on children of age group 3-9 years including pre-school to grade 3. Children who are in grade 4 and 5 and have not attained the foundational skills will be provided age appropriate and supplementary graded learning materials to acquire the necessary competencies.
NIPUN Bharat in Nagaland was launched on the 1st of December 2021 by the Chief Minister. Like the rest of the country, the mission in the state has been set up under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha which is an integrated scheme of school education covering Pre-School to Senior Secondary level. A five-tier implementation mechanism has been set up in the National-State-District-Block-School level in all States and UTs and the program has been implemented on a mission mode. Long term roadmaps and plan of action have been prepared to fulfil the goals of the mission. Academic and administrative approaches towards the mission have been put in place to ensure that these goals are achieved by the year 2026-27. Besides, parental and community engagement will be a central and overarching factor in planning, implementation and monitoring the interventions of the NIPUN Bharat Mission.
In Nagaland, a baseline survey to assess the present learning levels of children in Grade 1, 2, and 3 was carried out in all the districts for all categories of schools during December 2021- March 2022 by the SCERT and Samagra Shiksha. According to the survey report brought out by the SCERT, majority of the students are below class level competency levels. Reading abilities and writing skills were found to be very poor across classes. A declining trend in mathematics competencies was observed as students moved from class 1 to 3. Students performed better in lower complexity questions such as those which focus on assessing abilities to read and write numbers. Poor performance was observed in complex competencies such as solving problems using arithmetic operations. Attainment of class-wise competencies for language and mathematics is higher in students from Dimapur districts while lowest in Mon district.
The baseline report is a vital tool for planning and creating strategies to improve the learning levels in the foundational grades. The Lakshy as or learning goals of the mission which have been framed by the NCERT are expected learning achievements spelt class-wise for children to achieve, at their own pace and skills. Each child is to have mastered these targets or learning outcomes before they proceed to the next higher class. In most cases, children are not attaining the required learning outcomes which becomes a cumulated problem when they reach the elementary and secondary stages of education. Language is a barrier especially in many government schools; the inability to speak, read and write in English, which is the medium of transaction, becomes a hindrance to their learning. When students enter the elementary stage of education from the upper primary section, teachers face a huge task in the form of teaching them the basics of language and numeracy due to the weak foundation in these areas. Precious time is spent relearning the basics instead of focussing on the expected transaction to be done for that particular grade in which they are. The pandemic, which led to the closure of all schools for a long period of time created additional havoc resulting in learning loss which is something that all states are trying to come to terms with and desperately trying to repair through numerous interventions. The loss of learning especially at the foundational stage will be starkly evident in the subsequent classes and this cumulative learning loss for primary school children would be extremely high.
Loss of learning and a weak foundational learning combined leads to rising cases of students dropping out of school because they are unable to cope with their studies especially in subjects like mathematics and science. These drop outs later become liabilities in the society if they are not fortunate enough to be rehabilitated or taken care of through other programs for their future wellbeing. Also, a weak foundation results in students making improper or unsatisfactory choices in their academics in later stages of education because they are unable to attain the requisite qualifications to opt for a particular subject or a stream of study.
The guidelines of the FLN Mission emphasises on the importance of competency-based learning system. The shift from traditional learning system to competency-based learning will definitely have better results. The practice of ‘one size fits all’ in the classroom coupled with the idea of equating learning with syllabus completion will be replaced by a system that will be focussed on student learning outcomes where instruction is designed to match the developmental readiness of the students.
With numerous infrastructural, administrative, financial and governance issues bogging down the school education department over the years, challenges will arise for the state to achieve the five-year target given by the centre. Unless the community cooperates and claim ownership and accountability towards the education and future of our children, we will be, as the popular saying goes, creating our own storms and get upset when it rains. The Nipun Bharat mission will thrive on the extensive engagement of all stakeholders starting from the government level down to the teachers, parents and community for the program to be a success. As stated in the Nipun Bharat Mission guidelines, “community participation is a central and overarching factor in planning, implementation and monitoring of FLN mission… even after entering the formal schooling system, family and community continues to be the place where major learning takes place as children spend more than 80% of their time at home. Additionally, ensuring effective community involvement, especially in early years can make local context, culture and language an integral part of a child’s education that positively influences learning levels. The COVID 19 pandemic has further demonstrated the role of parents and the community members as active stakeholders in children’s education.”
Chandrakant Lahariya, in his article Why Primary schools should be the first to resume classes, writes, “Education has individual and societal benefits. The individual benefits are in terms of better jobs and increased family earning in the future. The societal benefits are in an educated and possibly better skilled workforce, contributing to increased work productivity and the economic growth of the nation”. The Nipun Bharat mission will not only strengthen the foundational learning of children but will also have a lasting impact towards an individual’s contribution to the society which will further play a significant role in the country’s growth and development towards a better future.
The writer is State Nodal Officer for NIPUN Bharat, Samagra Shiksha Nagaland.
