Nagaland puts focus on foundational literacy to improve learning outcomes

August 31, 2022 43 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Kohima | August 31

There is a perennial problem of the teaching methods at primary level, which is adversely affecting the quality of students at higher level of education in government schools in the state of Nagaland.

This is reflected in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018, where it states that 72.8% of students cannot read a simple class-II level text, while 71.9% children cannot do a basic subtraction problem by class-III.

Further the report on “the State of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in India” released on December 16, 2021 has revealed that there is a huge gap between the top scoring states in the country. Nagaland with a score of 42.47 came fifth in the Northeast category.

The data was highlighted by N Chumchanbeni Kikon, Director of SCERT at the inaugural programme of the 3-day state level capacity building for District Master Trainers on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) & Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) under NIPUN Bharat Mission Samagra Shiksha Nagaland at SCERT, Kohima.

“This requires our immediate attention to the learning outcomes in foundational literacy and numeracy,” said Kikon adding that class-III is considered the inflection point by which children are expected to ‘learn to read;’ so that they can ‘read to learn’ after that.

Expressing grave concern, she pointed out that falling behind in the foundational learning years which encompasses pre-school and elementary education, makes children more vulnerable as it ‘negatively impacts’ their learning outcomes.

Those who failed to attain the basic literacy and numeracy skills, Kikon pointed out; find it difficult to catch up in later years, and risk dropping out of school.

Nurture young minds
Kevileno Angami, Commissioner & Secretary, School Education & SCERT today emphasised on the need towards early childhood care and learning in the foundational years.

Pointing out that 85% of brain growth development occurs prior to 6 years; Angami said educators must give utmost importance in nurturing the growth and development of a child during this crucial period.

She also noted that there’s a penchant of finger pointing with the poor performance of higher classes ‘without realising the underlying factor,’ while referring to the importance of a strong foundational education.

Stating that the participants are the ‘game changers for our state’, she asked them to nurture the young minds and ensure that they are moulded into individuals who can understand, think critically and not just memorising the textbooks.

1679 schools to be covered
State Mission Director, Samagra Shiksha, Temsunaro informed that this training will be replicated in the EBRCs for the teachers and head teachers covering a target 6716 teachers and head teachers from 1679 schools having pre-primary and primary classes.

Teaching Leaning Materials (TLMs), she said will be provided to about 38,519 pre-primary children and 45,213 students from classes I-V studying in government schools across the state.

Unhappy with the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 report where Nagaland’s achievements in most of the categories were below the national average, she said ‘it is a matter of great concern for all.’ Although COVID pandemic has affected the learning process, Temsunaro however, reminded “now we don’t have special reasons for the poor learning outcomes of our students.”

To this end, she has advised the subject experts and teachers’ trainers to take the training programme seriously, and to provide quality training to all the teachers in their respective blocks. The three days programme has series of 13 sessions with core focus on foundational literacy and numeracy and FLN (pre-school). The training will conclude on September 1.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/nagaland-puts-focus-on-foundational-literacy-to-improve-learning-outcomes