Formation of National Steering Committee for Implementation of Nipun Bharat Mission

Vinod Kakumanu
None

NIPUN (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy) Bharat Mission was launched in July 2021 by the Department of School Education and Literacy. The objective of this mission is to achieve the goal of universal proficiency in foundational literacy and numeracy for every student by the end of grade 3 by 2026-27, according to National Education Policy 2020.

Moving forward to implement NIPUN Bharat, a National Steering Committee (NSC) was set up by the Centre on October 25, 2021. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, is the Chairperson of NSC, with Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi as the Vice Chairperson. This committee will be monitoring the progress of this national mission along with providing guidance on policy issues, and work towards achieving the goal by 2026-27. Periodic review of the norms related to programs and finance, to ensure that they are in alignment with the targets to be achieved, will also be undertaken by the committee.

Another responsibility of the NSC will be dissemination of yearly progress measurement tools in the form of guidelines. For the analysis of progress and establishing feedback mechanisms for states/Union Territories, the committee will develop a methodology of assessment. Factors (fund shortage, vacancies, local issues, teachers, need of training for teachers, curriculum or pedagogy related issues, etc.) leading to the gaps will be identified and National Action Plan will be prepared and approved with KRAs (key result areas) for all states and Union Territories.

Other members of the committee will comprise of: Secretary, School Education and Literacy; Director, NCERT; Secretary Education, Uttar Pradesh; Secretary Education, Karnataka; Director SCERT, Gujarat and Director SCERT, Sikkim.

Other committee members will include representatives of seven union ministries (Women and Child Welfare, Tribal Affairs, Social Justice and Empowerment, Health and Family Welfare, Finance, Electronics and Information Technology, and Panchayati Raj); two experts from NCERT and RIE Ajmer; and three external experts.