Various governmental as well as non-governmental surveys have shown that we are facing a learning crisis at the foundational level. A large proportion of students currently in elementary school, likely over five crore in number, have not attained Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN).
Acknowledging this, the NEP 2020 came with a special focus to achieve universal FLN and launched the NIPUN-BHARAT programme, which aims to meet the target by 2026-27. While experts testify to the usefulness of NIPUN-BHARAT, the ASER 2024 report due this month may well show we are far from achieving those targets five years after the launch of NIPUN-BHARAT. “As long as the change in FLN is an upward graph, it’s ok. We may achieve universal FLN in 2029 or 2030, but as long as we are making progress, we are on the right track”, says Parthajeet Das, Project Director, State and District FLN programs, Central Square Foundation, which works with governments to achieve universal FLN.
What is FLN
Different parents have different notions of what their child should be able to do in Class 2. Mr. Das says, “Some are extremely happy just to see their child write his name, while some are disappointed that he can’t do coding.”
But beyond these debatable expectations, FLN refers to basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills. Achieving FLN means students have developed the ability to read and comprehend basic text and the ability to carry out basic addition and subtraction.
The NIPUN-BHARAT mission provides guidelines for what students should achieve at each stage from preschool to Class 3. It says that Class 3 children should be able to read at least 60 words per minute correctly and with comprehension depending on the language and with correct pronunciation from an age appropriate unknown text. They should be able to read and write numbers up to 9999 and solve simple multiplication problems.
The focus on FLN comes through an understanding that if certain skills are not mastered by the children at the foundational stage, it creates learning gaps. It becomes difficult for them to deal with the complexities of the curriculum after Class 3. It becomes difficult to catch up and then in-turn the reason for not attending or dropping out of school altogether.
Mr. Das says that when children transition from one level to another acquiring, basic skills are very important, or they won’t be able to read their social science lessons and more. He says some students can produce the table of four with their eyes closed, but when you make them do a simple multiplication they can’t do it. “They need to be conceptually clear of these things otherwise their trust in education fades away”, he says.
ASER reports
For almost two decades, the ASER reports have pointed out that many children in elementary school need urgent support to acquire these foundational skills like reading and basic arithmetic. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is a nationwide citizen-led household survey that provides a snapshot of children’s schooling and learning in rural India. The ASER 2022 had come after a gap of four years, when children were back in school after an extended period of school closure due to the pandemic.
The ASER reading test assesses whether a child can read letters, words, a simple paragraph at Class 1 level of difficulty, or a story at Class 2 level of difficulty. According to the 2022 report, nationally, children’s basic reading ability has dropped to pre-2012 levels, reversing the slow improvement achieved in the intervening years. Drops are visible in both government and private schools in most states, and for both boys and girls.
The percentage of children in Class 3 in government or private schools who can read a Class 2 text level dropped from 27.3% in 2018 to 20.5% in 2022. This decline is visible in every state and for children in both government and private schools.
States showing a decline of more than 10 percentage points from 2018 levels include those that had higher reading levels in 2018, such as Kerala (from 52.1% in 2018 to 38.7% in 2022), Himachal Pradesh (from 47.7% to 28.4%), and Haryana (from 46.4% to 31.5%). Large drops are also visible in Andhra Pradesh (from 22.6% to 10.3%) and Telangana (from 18.1% to 5.2%).
The same report also shows a national decline in children’s basic arithmetic levels over 2018 for most grades. But the declines are less steep and the picture is more varied than in the case of basic reading. The all-India figure for children in Class 3 who are able to at least do subtraction dropped from 28.2% in 2018 to 25.9% in 2022. While Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh maintained or improved slightly over 2018 levels, steep drops of more than 10 percentage points were visible in Tamil Nadu (from 25.9% in 2018 to 11.2% in 2022), Mizoram (from 58.8% to 42%), and Haryana (from 53.9% to 41.8%).
NIPUN-BHARAT mission
The Ministry of Education launched the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat on July 5, 2021. The mission states that, “the rest of the policy (NEP) 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.”
The NIPUN-BHARAT programme has developed a five-tier implementation mechanism. It provides curricular framework, teaching learning material, and more. It has defined measurable learning outcomes and assessment techniques. It also works on teacher capacity building. Beyond academics, the programme tries to address the needs of children’s health and well-being including nutrition.
Major initiatives under NIPUN Bharat Mission include the constitution of the National Steering Committee for its implementation. Vidya Pravesh Guidelines, which provide a three-month play-based School Preparation Module. The mission launched NISHTHA-FLN for teachers and school heads of preschool to Class 5, providing online training for teachers on foundational literacy and numeracy.
Mr. Das says that the for the implementation of NIPUN-BHARAT the government has laid down policy to the last detail. “The framework is detailed for what needs to be done at the national level, state level, district and even block. It is clear who will play what role, what is to be achieved and the project is backed with a deadline, which should push people to put efforts”.
As per government data from 2022, the mission is being run in all 36 States and Union territories. The website boasts of nationwide coverage of various aspects of enthusiastic participation.
Beyond basic reading and mathematics, it also tries to take into account different developmental goals. There are different domains of development such as physical and motor development, socio emotional development and so on.
FLS by NCERT
A large-scale Foundational Learning Study (FLS) was undertaken by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in March 2022. The study aimed to understand what Class 3 students can do in foundational literacy and numeracy and to what extent the learning outcomes are being achieved. The data derived from the FLS Study were also used to understand the baseline for the NIPUN Bharat mission. It intended to establish reading proficiency benchmarks for fluency and comprehension for 20 languages in the country.
Approximately 86,000 Class 3 students from 10,000 schools were assessed. The Study sample included state government schools, government-aided schools, private recognised and central government schools. FLS was conducted in 20 languages which are being used as a medium of instruction in various States and Union Territories: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, English, Garo, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Khasi, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Mizo, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
The focus of ORF was to test the precision and fluency among children when they read. It means the child should be able to decode the words correctly, and to read the words fluently. ORF with Comprehension implies that reading is a meaning-making activity, and therefore, the reading comprehension needs to be assessed as a follow-up of reading of a text.
Reforms needed
Mr. Das from says that beyond policy and planning and providing resources, structural reforms are needed. He says we can provide all the resources and monitor the implementation but the perception needs to change too. Nobody likes to send their children to government school as they feel they won’t learn anything there. He says we need to start saying that these are the learning outcomes the child will achieve - that he will be able to read and write. “There is no faith, we need to start building that faith”, he said.
People feel that the children will get shoes, books, midday meals, and more but there is no conversation about learning outcomes. “It is not just the parents. Everyone within the system also believes that no learning will happen”, he says.
Mr. Das says that in many parts of the country, there are still schools with just 30 to 40 students admitted across grades. In such cases, only one teacher gets allocated to the school as per norms, which results in quality gaps in learning. As a result students have to sit in multi-grade classrooms. In some states the percentage of such schools is very high. “This needs to be rationalised. We need to have one teacher per grade and separate non-teaching staff for data entry and work of other schemes”, he said.
It is observed that the last mile would require more effort. “It is difficult to reach remote areas, that leg will require us to do things differently,” says Mr. Das.
Mr. Das says there is not a huge disparity in how different states are performing. Every state is doing as badly or as well as one can see through different surveys. “There are variations in a country like India. But even with States that have a good system like Kerala or Tamil Nadu, or even smaller states like Punjab, there is not a drastic difference”, he said,
Mr. Das says we are running one education system so some of the factors that lead to poor learning outcomes are systemic. “The same teacher training is delivered; same teaching material is given; the nature of the examination is the same”, he said.
Renu Singh, Country Director, India says their studies show evidence of early childhood education on long-term outcomes. Young Lives conducts a longitudinal study to understand the impact of the children’s early circumstances on their later outcomes across multiple areas including education.
The longitudinal study has followed the same people over the last 23 years. We have seen the same people from being students to getting married to becoming parents”, said Ms. Singh. She says the study shows direct correlation between early learning and secondary school completion.
But Singh says there is a need to widen the scope of what we see as foundational learning beyond numeracy and literacy. She says social-emotional skills are very important starts with independence, self-discipline, it starts with children’s independence, self discipline, explore, do problem solving starting points of foundational learning. If you don’t have social emotional skills, it is of no point. We don’t want that to happen
Published - January 24, 2025 03:50 pm IST
