Policy and Programmatic initiatives to strengthen and sustain efforts for achieving universal Foundational Literacy & Numeracy (FLN) in India

Background

India, with one of the largest education systems in the world with 26.5 crore children enrolled in 15 lakh schools being taught by 95 lakh teachers, has achieved near-universal enrolment in primary grades. However, learning levels remain low. The World Bank defines Learning Poverty as the percentage of 10-year-olds who cannot read and understand simple text. By this definition, 56% of children in India are considered learning poor¹. Without these basic skills, the benefits of education in the later years are lost. Similar alarming statistics have also been highlighted in multiple rounds of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) conducted by Pratham² across India at a rural household level. 

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, a ‘once in a generation’ policy, calls out Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) as an urgent and necessary prerequisite to learning. The Policy notes that the achievement of FLN should be India’s highest educational priority, without which the entire policy would be ineffective. In July 2021, the Ministry of Education (MoE) launched the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat Mission to support the vision of the NEP 2020 to solve the foundational learning crisis in a time-bound manner. The Mission aims to create an enabling environment conducive to the universal acquisition of FLN by 2026-27³, i.e., every child achieves the desired learning competencies in reading, writing, and numeracy by the end of Grade 2. 

Progress So Far

The NIPUN Bharat Mission is driving the nationwide FLN transformation. Several Indian states launched their state-specific NIPUN Missions and are leveraging the additional estimated funding of Rs 13,400 crores being made available from 2021-22 to 2026-27 under NIPUN for Teaching Learning Materials (TLMs), Assessments, Capacity Building, and State and District teams. With the NIPUN Bharat Mission in an advanced stage of implementation across many states, it is now time to deepen the current efforts and ensure the Mission’s sustainability.

Central Square Foundation (CSF) works closely with 11 States – Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh – partnering with them in designing their FLN Missions for State-wide roll-out and implementation to reach all government schools and classrooms for all children learning. These state partnerships have given CSF the unique opportunity to support and witness the implementation of state missions closely and accumulate rich on-ground experiences and learnings to share some key policy recommendations to ensure that India attains the vision of the NEP 2020 and the NIPUN Bharat Mission towards building Viksit Bharat. This note articulates these policy recommendations. 

CSF’s Recommendations

1. Continuing Funding for sustaining Foundational Literacy & Numeracy

Since the launch of the NIPUN Bharat Mission, States and Union Territories have been provided with additional funding for important components under the NIPUN Bharat Mission. This has been made available through the centrally sponsored Samagra Shiksha⁴, an integrated scheme of school education covering preschool to senior secondary level. One of the most critical components covered under the Mission is Teaching Learning Materials (TLM), with dedicated funding of up to Rs 500 per child per annum as per the mission guidelines. 

Global evidence confirms that the presence and usage of TLMs improve FLN outcomes. These TLMs encompass a variety of tools that assist students in developing essential language and numeracy skills. Examples include story books, print-rich posters, reading cards, and maths manipulatives. The impetus provided by the launch of the NIPUN Bharat Mission has catalysed the States to develop high-quality TLMs, which has significantly improved the classroom experiences of both teachers and students. For example, under the NIPUN Bharat Mission in Uttar Pradesh, the state has developed a comprehensive TLM package including teacher guides, workbooks, and supplementary materials for both literacy and numeracy. Since the 2021-22 academic year these TLMs have been actively utilised by teachers, enabling them to effectively plan and enrich classroom interactions. Conversations with teachers from Uttar Pradesh have revealed that these resources have allowed them to deliver a structured and significantly enhanced learning experience to students. Similarly in Telangana, a teacher’s needs assessment conducted after teachers were exposed to high-quality Teacher Guides (TGs) developed by the State indicated a strong demand from teachers for a continued supply of these TGs.

Continuous financial support towards TLMs has made the Mission come alive in all schools and classrooms. India, across Central and State governments, needs to ensure that this funding continues beyond the NIPUN Bharat Mission timeline of 2026-27. NIPUN was originally envisaged to cover Grades 1, 2, and 3. To align with the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for foundation stages, it has been revised to cover only Grades 1 and 2.  But until the NEP 2020’s vision of 3 years of pre-primary schooling for all 3-5-year-old children in India does not become a reality, NIPUN will need to continue to extend until Grade 3. Considering ~4.6 crore children in Grades 1-3 in government and government-aided schools, the total budgetary requirement for this component would be Rs. ~2,300 crores. Given their criticality and evidence of improving FLN outcomes, the budgetary allocation of TLMs and Teacher Resource materials should be a standardised component of India’s education budget even beyond the Mission’s timeline. 

2. Enhance FLN Evaluation through 1-1 Oral Assessments

Education systems around the globe, including in India, undertake large-scale diagnostic assessments on a periodic basis, to identify gaps in student learning and thereafter, plan for their remediation. In India, we have the National Achievement Survey (NAS), which is administered to students at the end of Grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 at the district level. In 2022, another large-scale survey, the Foundational Learning Study (FLS), was administered to students in Grade 3 by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) at the state level. FLS has been a one-of-a-kind assessment that focussed specifically on assessing our youngest students’ foundational literacy and numeracy competencies – making the current gaps clearly visible. The FLS was also designed to establish FLN competency benchmarks across States and languages. NAS is a written assessment, while FLS is an oral assessment conducted by a trained assessor with one student at a time.

NAS and FLS are different in their design and modes of administration, but have the same underlying purpose – diagnosing the health of the education system, albeit at different levels of depth. NAS at the grade 3 level, however, cannot ascertain the health of the education system at the level of detail required for corrective action. To elaborate, NAS currently assesses only Reading Comprehension under literacy, without evaluating other sub-competencies that contribute to overall reading proficiency. As a result, it does not pinpoint the specific areas where students may be struggling. Similarly, in Numeracy, the assessment tests the knowledge of three-digit numbers and their operations, but a significant proportion of students are unable to solve such questions. A deeper analysis of sub-competencies, such as number recognition and understanding of place value, would provide valuable insights into why students are not achieving the desired proficiency levels. Such details are captured in the FLS format. The one-on-one oral assessment of FLN skills, as conducted in the FLS, is particularly suitable for younger students since it provides the means to assess the deeper, more fundamental competencies of literacy and numeracy. This results in an accurate diagnosis of the specific competencies and their nuances of difficulty in learning, as faced by the students. 

Based on the budgets for NAS 2021 and FLS 2022⁴, even if the FLS methodology were adapted for district-level sampling, similar to NAS, the overall cost for the central government would remain comparable. Therefore, it is recommended to redesign the Grade 3 component of the NAS to replicate the FLS approach and conduct the assessment at the district level and maintain the existing NAS design for grades 5, 8 and 10. 

3. Strengthening Early Childhood Education as a precursor to FLN

Research from India and other countries shows that a child’s readiness for school is closely related to attaining key FLN skills. A study conducted across three states – Assam, Telangana, and Rajasthan- found that students’ average test scores (mathematics and language) in Grades 1 and 2 improved significantly due to exposure to quality Early Childhood Education⁶. The NEP 2020 recognises this and emphasises the importance of Early Childhood Education (ECE) and FLN as a continuum of learning from ages 3-8. 

In the current system, the Indian 5-year-old is arguably the most neglected. 3-5-year-old children are covered together under the Anganwadi system, and until recently, 5-year-old children were also being admitted in Grade 1, leaving the 5-6-year-old cohort in the government system scattered between Anganwadis or in Grade 1 prematurely. Both these situations are not conducive to ensuring school readiness for 5-year-old children. The Anganwadi workers are just not equipped to cater to this cohort as duties overburden them, and they also lack the specific training/curriculum for school readiness. It is unfair for this age cohort to be in Grade 1 as they will be expected to engage with a curriculum beyond their developmental milestone. 

It is therefore recommended that states prioritise the phased establishment of pre-primary sections, or Balvatikas, especially for the 5-6-year age group. As a first step, large schools (enrollment >=200) with either a co-located Anganwadis or a pre-primary section, can be augmented, with the deployment of dedicated Early Childhood Education (ECE) educators (at an annual salary of ~Rs 2 lakhs⁷). This would be made possible by increasing the Samagra Shiksha budgetary component by ~ Rs 1170 Crores⁸, given that approximately 58.5 thousand schools meet the above criteria.

Parallelly, the adoption of appropriate play-based teaching-learning materials that follow principles of quality early learning and structured pedagogy should be promoted, and existing institutional structures (like the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs), District Institute of Education and Training (DIETs), State Institute of Educational Management and Training (SIEMAT), National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD), etc) should be strengthened to deliver regular, practice-based training for ECE educators and Anganwadi workers.

4. Hiring Fellows at the Block Level to ensure robust implementation

Districts play a key role in India’s federal government structure from an administration perspective. Specifically for school education, districts also have a district-level education leadership team (such as District Education Officers) and institutional structures like that of the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET). Supporting FLN at the district level can integrate the role, engagement, and accountability of all stakeholders from parents, teachers, headmasters, and other education system functionaries for academic and administrative responsibilities.

One approach for the district level is designing a State-owned NIPUN Fellowship programme, where mission oriented and skilled youth are hired at the district level in the States to drive implementation fidelity of the State’s FLN mission. Madhya Pradesh is currently executing this through the Madhya Pradesh NIPUN Professionals (MPNP) Fellowship, where the professionals are deployed to 52 districts within the State. The MPNP Professionals partner with education leadership at the district level to support the roll out of Madhya Pradesh’s FLN Mission, Mission Ankur, by improving implementation efficiency in classrooms, monitoring classroom practice and learning data, and assisting district plans and review meetings.

Although additional capacity in the form of temporary Fellows is not the systematic long term solution in itself, given the breadth and depth of administrative and academic issues that need to be addressed on a daily basis, explicit focus on the NIPUN Bharat Mission is likely to get marginalised. Therefore, young additional human capital with a dedicated focus on ensuring high-fidelity implementation of the State’s NIPUN Missions will serve as a catalytic link that is currently missing in the system, and build on the energy and momentum of NIPUN Bharat, leading to learning for all children.

Within districts, blocks can be leveraged as a building block for the effective implementation of the NIPUN Bharat Mission. Blocks as a unit of change will also lead to well-defined, frequent, deeper, and integrated coordination from community to school to education leadership. 

Along the lines of the district fellowship, it may be considered to launch a centrally-sponsored PM NIPUN Fellowship owned by the Centre where it is recommended to deploy a NIPUN Fellow in every block in India. Considering an annual fellowship stipend of INR ~8 lakh for each fellow per block, the total budget for all ~ 7,200 blocks in India amounts to INR ~576 crores annually. This investment can pay exponential dividends. A high visibility and prestigious PM NIPUN Fellowship would attract India’s top talent, who would act as catalysts for long-term FLN reforms within the system, deepening the green shoots that have begun to emerge in the current stage of implementation.

Conclusion

India’s vision of Viksit Bharat is significantly dependent on our demographic dividend. The NEP 2020 and the NIPUN Bharat Mission are critical contributors to ensure that our children who will grow up to be the workforce contributing to our economic growth are set up on a strong education foundation. Continued education funding support with responsible tracking of our children’s learning growth, a Balavatika class for all 5-year-old children in the government school education system, and a focus on energising and aligning all education stakeholders with high accountability towards NIPUN are what we need to ensure our future vision becomes our reality.

¹ The State of Global Learning Poverty:2022 Update 

² Pratham – https://www.pratham.org/programs/education/aser/ 

³ NIPUN Bharat Guidelines For Implementation 2021

⁴ About Samagra Shikha

⁵ CPAB minutes for NAS 2021, NAS 2021 Report & FLS 2022 report

⁶ India Early Childhood Education Impact Study, by Centre for Early Childhood Education Development (CECED), Ambedkar University, Delhi and ASER Centre, New Delhi, in collaboration with UNICEF

⁷ Rs 2 lakhs per annum has been recommended based on the precedence set by the UP government letter सामु०सह० / LBD Instructor-2 / 5036 / 2024-25

⁸ UDISE 2021-22 microdata