PUNE: The G20 countries should commit to ensuring Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) for all children entering class 3 by 2033, renowned Indian-origin mathematician and National Curriculum Framework (NCF) member Prof. Manjul Bhargava said on Monday.
Bhargava laid stress on dedicated financing, resources, legislation, and international commitments to ensure the goal that the goal is achieved in 10 years' time.
"G20 countries should commit to Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for all children entering grade 3 by 2033. I am hopeful that the member countries can make this commitment during the upcoming G20 Education Ministers' meeting,” he said during a session at the fourth and final Education Working Group (EWG) meeting of the G20.
Bhargava noted that several surveys indicate "a severe learning crisis concerning these most basic skills.”
“There needs to be a continued collaboration amongst the member countries and the world by sharing experiences, best practices, and lessons learned to promote foundational learning,” said the Princeton University professor, who was awarded the Fields Medal in 2014,
"There should be committed financing, resources, legislation, and G20 and other international commitments to ensure that universal FLN is achieved," he further said.FLN is the ability to read and write simple text and perform basic arithmetical operations like addition, subtraction etc.
When asked by this paper whether India will be able to achieve the 2033 target, Bhargava said, "I think so. These last three-four years, I have been very impressed with how India is totally committed. The New Education Policy (NEP) puts FLN at the centre and early childhood care (ECC) and education at the centre. The NCF has come out for early childhood care and education. ECC programmes have actually started in all Kendriya Vidayalyas and then spread to all government schools. The government
commitment is there.,
"I am optimistic that it can happen. India is moving in the right direction. If they keep a sustained effort for the next five or ten years it can happen," he said.
Bhargava also said that there is a need for a developmentally appropriate curriculum that is responsive and relevant to learners' developmental needs and interests at different stages of their development.
Bhargava said the percentage of children and adolescents not achieving Minimum Proficiency Levels in Mathematics and reading as per the 2030 target of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is 14 per cent in developed countries and up to 50 per cent in developing countries.
"Once students fall behind on foundational skills, they tend to maintain flat learning curves for years, perpetually unable to catch up. For many students, this has become a major reason for not attending school or for dropping out altogether. Surveys indicate that we are in a severe learning crisis concerning these most basic skills," he said.
"Foundational learning provides the building blocks for all other learning, knowledge, and higher order skills that children and youth need to acquire through education. Literacy and numeracy help children to learn, experiment, reason, create, be active and informed citizens, and contribute socially, culturally, and
economically. FLN skills are not only critical for all future learning but are also strongly correlated with greater quality of life and well-being for the individual, and greater stability and prosperity for the nation. FLN skills bolster and enable progress on all other Sustainable Development Goals," added Bhargava.
According to UNESCO, achieving universal primary and secondary education would help lift more than 420 million people out of poverty, reducing the number of poor in the world by more than half.
Bhargava noted that since 2000, school enrolment has increased and the number of out-of-school children and youth was nearly cut in half.
Globally, 87 per cent of children now complete primary school. Dramatic progress has been made toward gender parity, especially in access to primary education. Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4), the world has committed to achieving universal completion of secondary school for all youth - with meaningful learning - by 2030.
"However, despite these improvements in access and equity, significant gaps persist, and hundreds of millions of children and youth worldwide are reaching adulthood without even the most basic life skills," he said.
Expanding and ensuring universal access to quality ECCE (early childhood care and education) programs, curricular focus on FLN, improving teacher capacity, focus on nutrition and health, parent and community participation and committed spending to ensure equitable access and learning are among the recommendations made by Bhargava for achieving universal FLN.
"In particular, students who do not have access to ECCE programs are far less likely to attain FLN. It is therefore recommended that all nations ensure universal access to early childhood care and education institutions having play-based curriculum and pedagogy for all children aged 3-6 years," he said, adding that the data shows that much more needs to be done to ensure the universalisation of access to quality ECCE programs, especially for children from low-income households.
"If these trends continue, these gaps in access to pre-primary education will be significant and have distressing implications for child development and educational outcomes. Initiatives must range from ensuring access to improving the overall quality of the ECCE program," Bhargava said.