Latest news with #NIPUNHaryana
The Hindu
08-07-2025
- General
- The Hindu
NIPUN Haryana: From foundations to flight
Imagine a classroom where kids stumble over simple words or can't add two numbers together. For years, this has been the sobering reality for millions of children across India, leaving them lost before they even had a chance to dream big. This educational crisis threatened not only individual futures but also our nation's progress. The COVID-19 pandemic only deepened this crisis, amplifying fears of irreversible learning loss. When the National Education Policy 2020 highlighted foundational literacy and numeracy (reading, writing, and basic math), Haryana took measurable steps in alignment. In July 2021, following the launch of the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat mission, the State launched the NIPUN Haryana mission with a promise: that every child in a government school would gain the reading, writing, and Math skills. Four years later, the results of the sustained implementation of the mission have made its visibility significant at the national level. From early learning to Class 5 From the beginning, NIPUN Haryana mission brought preschool called Balvatika III into over 8,600 primary schools, enrolling more than 86,000 five-year-olds in 2024-25. Early learning is sought to be made fun through the use of tools such as learning kits, rhymes, and the Vidya Pravesh school readiness program. The state has also set up 119 model Balvatikas, one in every educational block, to serve as examples for high-quality early learning. The mission extends from these early learners all the way up to Grade 5, covering children between the ages of 5 and 11. Children receive fun, easy-to-use textbooks and workbooks each year, along with structured teaching and learning materials designed with inputs from the National Curriculum Framework and adapted for Haryana, making learning feel less like a chore and more like an adventure. Over 35,000 teachers have been trained face-to-face for over 140 hours, learning new ways to make lessons stick. They're not left on their own afterward either. Online asynchronous learning courses on platforms like DIKSHA keep them updated, and monthly meetups called Shala Sangams let them swap ideas with peers. Then there are the 'mentors', over 1,500 of them, who drop into classrooms each month. They watch, guide, and cheer teachers on, using a customised 'NIPUN Haryana' app to log what they see. Some 7,400 school visits and more than 1 lakh spot assessments of students a month have been logged, providing valuable feedback for improvement. So, how do we know it's working? In September 2024, a large-scale third-party NIPUN Haryana evaluation designed in alignment with international research standards assessed 22,708 students across 1,187 government schools. The findings revealed both gains and clear pathways for targeted improvement. Students in Grades 2 and 3 displayed strong proficiency in listening comprehension, sentence reading, and reading comprehension, with Grade 3 students particularly excelling in core numeracy competencies such as number identification, addition, and multiplication. At the same time, the assessment flagged areas requiring further attention: reading fluency, word problem solving, and number pattern recognition. These insights align closely with national data. According to the 2024 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), the share of Haryana's Grade 3 government school children demonstrating grade-level numeracy rose from 26.1% in 2022 to 33.1% in 2024, outperforming the national average. Grade 5 students, too, are now reading and calculating at levels above national benchmarks. But beyond the numbers lies a deeper story. These data points translate into children reading aloud to their siblings, helping parents with calculations at local shops, and engaging with their studies with growing self-assurance. Technology has emerged as an enabler of Haryana's learning transformation. Under the state's e-Adhigam initiative, every teacher and mentor in government schools was equipped with internet-enabled smart tablets. These are being used to drive the implementation of NIPUN Haryana—from facilitating data-driven instruction to tracking student progress in real time. Complementing these are mobile apps that simplify classroom observations and lesson planning, facilitating teachers, parents, and administrators to work in concert. Looking ahead, the introduction of Holistic Progress Cards will provide families with a more complete picture of each child's development—not just academic scores, but also skills, strengths, and growth trajectories over time. Connecting with families Through initiatives like NIPUN Raftar (reading competitions) and NIPUN Ramleela (dramatisations of lessons), learning is sought to be part of dinner table conversations among families. Parents receive updates via key mission-related information via diverse channels, bridging the traditional gap between school and home. From local raginis and radio shows to school exhibitions and student-led storytelling, the mission has found creative ways to connect with families. As India works toward achieving the ambitious goals of NEP 2020, Haryana offers valuable lessons: start early, invest in teachers, use technology wisely, involve communities, and continuously measure results. As the State steps into NIPUN Haryana 2.0, the mission is shifting gear, from expanding access to deepening outcomes, from delivering content to unlocking learning. (Parmod Kumar is the State Programme Officer at Department of School Education, Haryana, and Sambhrant S is the Associate Director, State Reforms at Central Square Foundation)
Hindustan Times
29-05-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Summer break homework in Haryana: Meet soldiers, know more about Operation Sindoor
The upcoming summer holiday promises to be a month of creativity and character-building for Haryana's primary school students, who will spend a day with a soldier in the neighbourhood under 'Ek Mulakaat Sainik Ke Saath' home task and gain insight into Operation Sindoor and India's armed forces. The revamped June 1 to June 30 vacation assignment rolled out on Thursday under NIPUN Haryana mission discards the dull and embraces the dynamic. At the core of this year's summer homework is instilling among the tiny tots awareness about the pride of serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and paramilitary forces, sacrifices of soldiers and how to become an officer or soldier in the armed forces, said officials involved in drafting the summer break homework. Read: Not a single student from 18 Haryana schools passed HBSE Class 12 board exam Another facet of this back-to-basic and grass-root learning approach prepared for primary class students is that parents, and not teachers, will evaluate the homework. This year, the students will also track rainfall, plant fruit seeds, take selfies with soldiers, explore life skills like digital literacy, and community engagement—all woven into foundational learning outcomes. Students will also learn how to navigate google maps, identify currency apps, observe mosquito breeding grounds, play traditional games like antakshari and snakes and ladders, and regularly massage their grandparents' feet, who in return will share family stories. According to Pramod Kumar, state programme officer of NIPUN, the homework has been prepared to make education more joyful, inclusive, and deeply connected to everyday life while sparking curiosity and engaging kids in outdoor activities assisted by their elders. 'Parents will assess their child's engagement... Their observations will be shared in the first parent teacher meeting (PTM) in July, making learning a shared family affair,' says Kumar, who heads the six-member team that has prepared the homework separately for each primary class. The Class 5 students will have to deal with 41 activities, including full knowledge of the family tree, memorising names and phone numbers of a few family members and at least two relatives, postal address, names of prominent political personalities of their assembly segment, state and national leaders, and prominent players. 'We are not just assigning holiday work, we are trying to help students learn by living and to grow by doing,' Kumar said adding that all eyes will be on how students deal with 'Ek Mulakaat Sainik Ke Saath' task. Each student, with the help of parents, will meet either serving soldier or ex-servicemen in the neighbourhood. They will spend a day with that soldier, take selfies, learn about their experiences, and grasp the nature of their contributions. The student is expected to gather information on how to join armed forces as an officer or soldier, military training institutes, stories of bravery in military operation including Operation Sindoor. Based on the day-long interaction, the student will prepare a report and present it in the classroom. 'This task will develop patriotic feelings, students will learn about the sacrifice of soldiers, value of discipline, dedication, and challenging lifestyle of soldiers. Simultaneously this exercise will improve creative skills of students as they have to write a report, and draw a picture,' officials said. Designed to promote foundational literacy and numeracy in meaningful and contextual ways, this holiday homework shifts focus from rote tasks to real-life, hands-on, and reflective learning experiences. Civic and academic engagements are also part of the homework, including memorising Aadhaar and phone numbers of family members, and learning the names of national and local leaders. Reading assignments for Class 5 students include reviewing two library books, supported by short written and video reviews. The compiled work and observations will be discussed during a structured parent teacher meeting in July 2025, turning holiday homework into a collective, participatory educational journey.
