NIPUN Bharat Mission: Objectives, Features, Challenges & More UPSC Notes

NIPUN Bharat Mission has been launched under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha with focus on providing access and retaining children in foundational years of schooling, capacity building of teachers, development of high quality and diversified Student and Teacher Resources/Learning Materials and tracking the progress of each child in achieving learning outcomes.

The NIPUN Bharat Scheme is important from UPSC Civil Services Preliminary as well as Mains Examination point of view. It is a Government launched mission and thus its provisions can be asked in UPSC CSE preliminary Examination. It is also relevant under the Government Schemes section of General Studies- II of UPSC CSE Mains Examination.

About NIPUN Bharat Mission

The Ministry of Education launched the National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy called National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) in July 2021. NIPUN Bharat Mission has been launched under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha.

NIPUN Bharat Mission Logo

Objectives of NIPUN Bharat Mission

These are the following objectives of NIPUN Bharat Mission:

• It will stress giving children access to and keeping them in school during their early years, strengthening teacher capacity, creating high-quality, diversified student and teacher resources/learning materials, and monitoring each child's progress in achieving learning outcomes.
• All public, government-aided, and private schools must fulfil the mission's aims and objectives by 2026–27.
• To create an inclusive learning environment in the classroom by integrating play, discovery, and activity-based pedagogies, connecting them to the children's daily lives, and formally embracing their native languages.
• To help kids develop a passion for reading, independence, and engagement in their writing, as well as comprehension and long-lasting reading and writing abilities.
• To make children understand the reasoning in the domains of numbers, measurement and shapes; and enable them to become independent in problem-solving by way of numeracy and spatial understanding skills.
• To ensure availability and effective usage of high-quality and culturally responsive teaching learning material in children’s familiar/home/mother language(s).
• To focus on continuous capacity building of teachers, head teachers, academic resource persons and education administrators.
• To actively engage with all stakeholders i.e., Teachers, Parents, Students and Community, and policymakers for building a strong foundation of lifelong learning.
• To ensure assessment ‘as, of and for’ learning through portfolios, group and collaborative work, project work, quizzes, role plays, games, oral presentations, short tests, etc.
• To ensure tracking of learning levels of all students.

Read more about National Skill Development Mission!

Features of NIPUN Bharat Scheme

These are some of the features of NIPUN Bharat Scheme:

• The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education (MoE) will be the implementing agency at the national level and will be headed by a Mission Director.
• The Ministry of Education has launched NIPUN Bharat, for ensuring that every child in the country necessarily attains foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) by the end of Grade 3, by 2026-27.
• The mission will focus on children of the age group of 3 to 9 years including preschool to Grade 3.

The children who are in Classes 4 and 5 and have not attained the foundational skills will be provided individual teacher guidance and support, peer support and age-appropriate and supplementary graded learning materials to acquire the necessary competencies.

Major Initiatives Taken Under NIPUN Bharat Mission

So far, following major initiatives have been taken under NIPUN Bharat Mission:

• Constitution of National Steering Committee for the implementation of NIPUN Bharat Mission
• Development of Vidya Pravesh Guidelines and Module for Grade I
• Launch of NISHTHA-FLN for teachers and school heads of preschool to Grade V
• Launch of NISHTHA ECCE for-master trainers/ resource persons for training of preschool teachers/Anganwadi workers
• Conduct of Foundational Learning Study (FLS)
• Creation of DIKSHA FLN portal for availability of FLN resources
• Conduct of 100 Days Reading Campaign
• Development of Guidelines for Parent Participation in Home-based Learning during School Closure and Beyond
• Development of Guidelines for Community Engagement in Foundational Learning, Training of Academic Task Force (ATF) and District Task Force Members (DTFs)
• National Conference on Initiatives in Foundational Learning: Voices from the Ground to exchange best practices, share status and understand challenges
• Continuous tracking and monitoring (monthly, quarterly, annually) of the mission implementation in all the states and UTs.

Significance of NIPUN Bharat Mission

This Mission is significant for India in many ways. These are the following significance of NIPUN Bharat Mission:

• Foundational skills enable to keep children in class thereby reducing the dropouts and improve transition rate from primary to upper primary and secondary stages.
• Activity based learning and a conducive learning environment will improve the quality of education.
• Innovative pedagogies such as toy-based and experiential learning will be used in classroom transactions thereby making learning a joyful and engaging activity.
• Intensive capacity building of teachers will make them empowered and provide greater autonomy for choosing the pedagogy.
• Holistic development of the child by focusing on different domains of development like physical and motor development, socio-emotional development, literacy and numeracy development, cognitive development, life skills etc. which are interrelated and interdependent, which will be reflected in a Holistic Progress Card.
• Children to achieve a steeper learning trajectory which may have positive impacts on later life outcomes and employment.
• Since almost every child attends early grades, therefore, focus at that stage will also benefit the socio-economic disadvantageous group thus ensuring access to equitable and inclusive quality education.

Limitations of NIPUN Bharat Mission

There are some challenges as well as limitations of NIPUN Bharat Mission. These are the following limitations of NIPUN Bharat Mission:

• Lacking in True Inclusivity: The policy mentions that the reading material given to children should depict children with special needs as being an integral part of the society. However, it doesn’t lay down a path for realising this inclusion.
• Resource Constraints: Limited funding for education may hinder the initiative’s implementation, affecting teacher training, infrastructure development, and provision of learning materials.
• Lack of Clarity on Assessments: This is supposed to be a subjective assessment where the child is evaluated on the basis of observations being made by teachers, parents, and peers. The effectiveness of this form of assessment will depend a lot on the kind of investment being made in teacher training, development, and sensitisation.
• Coordination with Stakeholders: Coordinating multiple stakeholders and ensuring consistent implementation across diverse regions and contexts is a significant challenge.

Way Forward

• Foundational skills help keep kids in school, which lowers dropout rates and improves the rate of transition from primary to upper primary and secondary levels.
• Education will be of higher quality if it is activity-based and is conducted in a supportive environment.
• Teachers will become more empowered and have more autonomy in their pedagogy selection with intensive capacity building.
• Children achieve a higher learning curve, which may have favourable effects on achievements in later life and career.
• Since every kid attends the early grades, focusing on them will also help the socioeconomically disadvantaged group, ensuring that they have access to a quality education that is egalitarian and inclusive.
• A Holistic Progress Card will reflect the child's holistic growth by concentrating on a variety of interrelated and dependent developmental areas, such as physical and motor development, socio-emotional development, literacy and numeracy development, cognitive development, life skills, etc.

Key Takeaways for UPSC Aspirants NIPUN Bharat Abhiyan: Aims to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy for children by Grade 3 by 2026-27. Ministry of Education: Initiated by the Ministry of Education as part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Target Group: Focuses on children in the age group of 3 to 9 years. Holistic Approach: Involves teacher training, curriculum redesign, development of learning resources, and community engagement. Monitoring and Assessment: Implements a robust monitoring mechanism to track progress at national, state, and local levels. Equity and Inclusion: Ensures quality education for all children, including marginalized and disadvantaged groups. Capacity Building: Enhances the capacity of teachers through continuous professional development programs. Stakeholder Involvement: Engages parents, community members, and local bodies in the educational process.

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