NIPUN Bharat Scheme 2024 PDF Download, Check Updated Guidelines

Central government had launched NIPUN Bharat Mission earlier on 5 July 2021. NIPUN Bharat Scheme 2024 will ensure that every child in the country necessarily attains foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of Grade 3 i.e by 2026-27. On the occasion of launch of NIPUN Bharat Yojana, a short video, anthem and guidelines were launched. This mission has been launched under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha. 

NIPUN Bharat Scheme 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.

About Nipun Bharat Scheme 2024 

Union Minister for Education virtually launched a National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy. NIPUN Bharat Scheme 2024 aims to cover the learning needs of children in the age group of 3 to 9 years. Teachers are required to focus on every child in order to develop basic language; literacy and numeracy skills which will help them develop into better readers and writers. So NIPUN Bharat Mission aims to make the experience of learning at the foundational stage Holistic, Integrated, Inclusive, Enjoyable, and Engaging.

National Mission for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy

According to National Education Policy 2020, attaining foundational literacy and numeracy for all children must become an immediate national mission. So the govt. has developed a comprehensive guideline under NIPUN Bharat Mission, through a series of intensive consultations with implementing partners, experts to make it flexible and collaborative. 

NIPUN Bharat Scheme covers key technical aspects of foundational literacy and numeracy as well as the administrative aspects for effectively setting up an implementation mechanism at the National, State, District, Block and School level. Central govt. has approved Rs. 2688.18 crore under Samagra Shiksha scheme to the states and UTs for implementation of the various interventions for Foundational Stage.

Impact of NIPUN Bharat Yojana

Quality education is the backbone for strong Nation building and foundational education in literacy and numeracy skills is its core component. In the next few years, NIPUN Bharat Mission will change the outlook of school education and would impact 21st century in India. NIPUN Bharat Scheme will not only help our students to take a big stride forward in their higher classes, but it will also have a major impact in making our students globally competitive.

Lakshya Soochi (Goals List) of NIPUN Bharat Mission

The striking feature of NIPUN Bharat Mission is that its goals are set in the form of Lakshya Soochi or Targets for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy. The main aim is to achieve the desired learning outcomes by the end of grade 3. But to create awareness among the parents, community, volunteers etc. the Lakshyas (targets) are developed from Balvatika to Grade 3. The Laskhyas are based on the learning outcomes developed by the NCERT and international research and ORF studies. For eg - a child should be able to read 45 to 60 words per minute and at-least 60 words per minute correctly by the end of Grade 2 and 3 respectively from an age appropriate unknown text with comprehension and clarity.

The success of NIPUN Bharat will primarily depend on teachers, so, there will be a special emphasis on capacity building of teachers. A special package for foundational literacy and Numeracy under NISHTHA is being developed by NCERT. Around 25 lakh teachers teaching at pre-primary to primary grade will be trained this year on FLN.

Outcomes of NIPUN Bharat Scheme

Following outcomes have been envisaged from implementation of the goals and objectives 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 conducive learning environment will improve quality of education.
• Innovative pedagogies such as toy-based and experiential learning will be used in classroom transaction 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 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.

Thus, NIPUN Bharat is envisaged to support and encourage students, along with their schools, teachers, parents, and communities, in every way possible, to help realise the true potential of our children and propel the country to new heights.

NIPUN Bharat Scheme Guidelines PDF Download 

Check presentation on NIPUN Bharat Yojana - https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2021/jul/doc20217531.pdf

NIPUN Bharat Scheme Guidelines PDF - https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/nipun_bharat_eng1.pdf

Announcement of NIPUN Bharat Yojana

Previously, central govt. officials announced NIPUN Bharat Yojana to promote age-appropriate cognitive and numeracy skills among students. At least 25% of school-going children in the 4 to 8 age group lack age-appropriate cognitive and numeracy skills, according to an Aser report. Union govt. on 5th July will launch a new NIPUN Bharat Scheme to improve foundational reading, numeracy and understanding for early-stage students.

The scheme named "NIPUN Bharat Mission" will provide 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." NIPUN stands for National Initiative for Proficiency in reading with Understanding and Numeracy.

NIPUN Bharat will be implemented by the school education department of the Union government and "a five-tier implementation mechanism will be set up across national, state, district, block, and school levels in all states and Union territories."

Part of Samagra Shiksha School Education Programme

The new initiative is going to be part of the flagship school education programme, Samagra Shiksha, according to the Union education ministry. Foundational learning has been a constant drawback in Indian schools and the Annual Status of Education Report (Aser) findings released by education non-profit Pratham has showed for successive years how a bulk of the Indian students pursuing elementary education in schools cannot even read, understand or do basic arithmetic.

Foundational learning has also been emphasized in the new National Education Policy, which was approved in July last year but is yet to be rolled out. At least 25% of school-going children in the four-eight age group do not have age-appropriate cognitive and numeracy skills, resulting in a massive learning deficit at a very early stage, according to the Aser findings released in January 2020.

A mere 37.4% of children below the age of six are able to recognize at least letters and only 25.6% can do additions, according to the report. Additionally, only 34.8% of children in Class II can read a text meant for those enrolled in classes below them. In Class III, only 50.8% can read texts meant for students two levels below them, according to the Annual Status of Education Report findings.