Fundamental Learning Skill

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The study was carried out jointly by the Union Ministry of Education and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

• A nationwide study has found that 37 per cent of students enrolled in Class III have “limited” foundational numeracy skills, such as identifying numbers, while 11 per cent “lack the most basic knowledge and skills”.
• With a sample size of 86,000 students in 10,000 schools, the study — the largest ever in terms of scale at the foundational level also assessed the literacy skills of students in 20 languages including English. 
• While 15 per cent lacked “basic skills” in English, 30 per cent were found to have “limited skills”.
• National Achievement Survey (NAS), which evaluates learning outcomes of students in Classes III, V, VIII and X through a test based on multiple choice questions (MCQs) every three years, the findings of the Foundational Learning Study (FLS) were based on one-to-one interviews with each participant.

Depending on their performance, the students were categorised into four groups: 

• Those who lacked the most basic knowledge and skills
• Those who had limited knowledge and skills
• Those who had developed sufficient knowledge and skills
• Those who had developed superior knowledge and skills.

Findings

• Students who could partially complete their grade-level tasks were put in the “limited skills” group.
• While those who failed to complete even the simple grade-level tasks were categorised as “lacking the most basic skills”.
• In numeracy, Tamil Nadu, at 29 per cent, had the maximum number of students who could not complete the most basic grade-level tasks, followed by Jammu and Kashmir (28 per cent), Assam, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat (18 per cent).
• In literacy, the findings were based on phonological awareness, decoding letters, decoding words, decoding non-words, reading fluency and comprehension. For instance, a child was made to read a text aloud and asked questions based on that text, which was not from the school syllabus.
• In English, 15 per cent students were found to be lacking even basic skills, 30 per cent had limited skills, 21 per cent had sufficient skills, while 34 per cent had fairly superior skills.
• In Hindi, 21 per cent fell under the worst performing bracket, while 32 per cent had limited proficiency.
• Among other Indian languages, the proportion of students who lacked basic skills was: 17 per cent in Marathi, 20 per cent in Bengali, 17 per cent in Gujarati, 17 per cent in Malayalam, 42 per cent in Tamil, and 25 per cent in Urdu.
• At the national level, 11 per cent did not have the basic grade-level skills; 37 per cent had limited skills; 42 per cent had sufficient skills; and 10 per cent had superior skills.

Utility of the Findings

• The findings will set the baseline for NIPUN Bharat (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy), the Centre’s scheme to improve foundational learning. 
• “The study also aims to establish reading proficiency benchmarks for fluency and comprehension for each of the languages being assessed.
• It will also provide data to report on Sustainable Development Goals at the global level,”.

National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat)

• Aims to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy in primary classes and to ensure that all children attain grade-level competencies in reading, writing and numeracy.
• Lays down priorities and actionable agendas for States/UTs to achieve the goal of proficiency in foundational literacy and numeracy for every child by grade 3.
• Detailed guidelines have been developed for implementation of the NIPUN BHARAT Mission which includes the Lakshya or Targets for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy starting from the Balvatika upto age group 9.