NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday launched an initiative with an aim to ensure that every child in India necessarily attains foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of Class III, by 2026-27.
The scheme called National Initiative for Proficiency in reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat is set to be implemented by the school education department of the Centre.
The government said a five-tier implementation mechanism will be set up across national, state, district, block, and school levels in all states.
The new scheme is going to be part of the flagship school education programme, Samagra Shiksha, according to the Union Education Ministry. The government said it has already provided states with a fund of Rs 2688.18 crore for the implementation of the various interventions of the foundational stage in 2021-22 under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan.
A statement by the ministry said the initiative will focus on providing access and retaining children in foundational years of schooling, teacher capacity building, development of high quality and diversified student and teacher resources, learning materials and tracking the progress of each child in achieving learning outcomes.
Launching the scheme, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said the programme aims to cover the learning needs of children in the age group of 3 to 9 years, adding that teachers will need to focus on every child for developing basic language, literacy and numeracy skills which will help them develop into better readers and writers.
It envisages making the experience of learning at the foundational stage holistic, integrated, inclusive, enjoyable, and engaging, said the minister. The success of NIPUN Bharat, the statement said, will depend on teachers, so, there will be a special emphasis on the capacity building of teachers.