National Steering Committee: NIPUN Bharat Mission

• 26 Oct 2021

Why in News

Recently, a National Steering Committee (NSC) has been formed for the implementation of NIPUN Bharat Mission.

• NIPUN (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy) Bharat Scheme was launched earlier this year as part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Key Points

• Roles and Responsibilities of NSC:
  
  • To oversee the progress of the National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy and provide guidance on policy issues.
  • To arrive at the target to be achieved nationally in 2026-27.
  • To disseminate tools for measurement of yearly progress in the form of guidelines.
  • To prepare and approve a National Action Plan (based on the State’s Action Plans).
  • To review programmatic and financial norms periodically to ensure they are synchronised with targets to be achieved.
• NIPUN Bharat Mission:
  
  • Objective:
    
    • To create an enabling environment to ensure universal acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy, so that every child achieves the desired learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy by the end of Grade 3, by 2026-27.
  • Focus Areas:
    
    • It 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.
  • Implementation:
    
    • NIPUN Bharat will be implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education.
    • A five-tier implementation mechanism will be set up at the National- State- District- Block- School level in all States and UTs, under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha.
      
      • ‘Samagra Shiksha’ programme was launched subsuming three existing schemes: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
      • The aim of the scheme is to treat school education holistically, from pre-school to Class XII.
    • A special package for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) under NISHTHA (National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement) is being developed by NCERT.
      
      • NISHTHA is a capacity building programme for "Improving Quality of School Education through Integrated Teacher Training".
    • Stage-wise targets are being set in a continuum from the pre-primary or balvatika classes.
• Other Recent Initiatives:
  
  • Samagra Shiksha Scheme 2.0, Vidyanjali portal, Indian Sign Language Dictionary, etc.

Source: IE