NIPUN BHARAT

THE CONTEXT :

National Education Policy 2020 states that “Our highest priority must be to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) in primary school and beyond by 2025. The rest of the policy will be largely irrelevant for such a large portion of our students if this most basic learning (reading, writing, and arithmetic at the foundational level) is not first achieved.”

Govt. of India launched NIPUN (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy)Bharat on 5th July 2021 under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha.

The vision of NIPUN Bharat Mission is to create an enabling environment to ensure the 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.

Accordingly, all State/UT governments were expected to plan and implement programmes. for attaining universal foundational literacy and numeracy.

Mission Buniyaad was initially rolled out by the Delhi Government in 2018 to improve the literacy and numeracy of the students in grades 3 to 8. Carrying forward the impetus of NEP 2020 and NIPUN Bharat 2021, Delhi also undertook the initiative and launched the mission with the successful setting up of a State Steering Committee, Academic Task Force, appointing Nodal Officers and further spearheading the Project Management Units in 9 Districts wherein 10 Senior Consultants are leading the respective allotted DIETs with the supervision and guidance received by State Mission Director/SPD (Samagra Shiksha)Office.

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Steps were taken so far:

Since the launch of the Mission at the National Level, our journey from 2021 onwards has been enduring and set the ball rolling for a strong foundation for FLN in Delhi ensuring a safe, happy and conducive learning environment for each child.

To begin with, all the administrative steps were taken immediately under the stewardship of the Mission Director cum Director SCERT. Gradually, Delhi NIPUN Team has been putting together the following for the successful implementation of the mission:

1. Translation of NIPUN Guidelines/NIPUN Pledge into Urdu and Punjabi languages

2. Development of a Five years Perspective State and Actionable District level annual implementation plans.

3. The ECCE Kit (Khel Pitara and Literacy Kit) with Teachers’ Manual-

4. Integrated, activity-based bilingual integrated FLN Workbooks for grades I-V

5. Adaptation of the Vidyapravesh into VIDYARAMBH and study of its efficacy (including pre-tests and post-tests).

6. Development of Baseline Assessment Tools for grades Balvatika to grade 3 including L1, L2, and Numeracy, and the final Conduct of the Baseline Assessment in the nine districts of the UT in a sampled population.

7. Development of SMC Booklet Saajhedaari and Bhaagedari for building awareness among the parents to assess the child’s learning at home. Nukkad Nataks in each district have been initiated. SMCs training are also been undertaken for disseminating the goals of FLN.

8. Regular monthly coordination meetings with Dept. WCD, MCD, Directorate, and other local bodies.

9. Mass-level orientations of all stakeholders (mentor teachers, TDCs, administrators, DURCCs, CRCCs, Primary in charges, HOS, and teachers.

10. Events like Primary Leadership Development Programme (PLDP) which included sensitization on the FLN mission.

11. Successful run of 100 Days of the reading campaign.

12. MOUs did with Room to Read and Avahan as knowledge partners for the implementation.

13. Facilitation of Exposure visits by other States to study Delhi’s best practices in FLN.

14. Participation and representation of the team members in national and regional forums.

15. Initiatives like Montessori Lab, OPAC (Outreach Programme for Aganwadi Centres)

16. Establishment of Virtual Labs for Primary Grades to provide the learners first-hand learning experience of the virtual space, appropriate infrastructural arrangements have been introduced in the selected schools.

17. Celebration of Rangostav festival and Online Bagless Days.

Steps Ahead.