NIPUN BHARAT MISSION (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – Education)

Context: Educated mothers of young children can be valuable assets for the NIPUN initiative, contributing to its goal of improving foundational literacy and numeracy. Their involvement can significantly enhance early childhood education outcomes.

NIPUN Bharat Mission

• About: The mission has seen energetic implementation in many states, with a new framework for the foundational stage of education developed and released well before frameworks for other stages.
• Full Form: (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy.
• Launched: July 5, 2021
• Framework for Early Education: This framework includes teacher training oriented towards the new goals, specially designed teaching-learning materials for use by children and teachers in early grade classrooms.
• Importance of In-School Efforts: In addition to these in-school efforts, there are a set of interlinked social and demographic trends which, if leveraged, could provide a boost to the NIPUN efforts.
• Focus: A focus on parents, specifically the mothers of young children (between ages 4 and 8), is essential to see how their contribution can help in strengthening children’s learning journey.

Key Points

• Overall Improvement: According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) surveys, between 2010 and 2022, the number of mothers who have studied beyond Grade 5 increased from 35% to nearly 60%.
• Young Rural Mothers: In 2010, less than 10% of young rural mothers had completed more than 10 years of schooling. By 2022, this number had risen to well over 20%.
• Northern States: In states like Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Haryana, 30-40% of mothers of young children have received schooling beyond Grade 10.
• Higher Educational Achievement

o In Tamil Nadu, the percentage of mothers of young children who studied beyond Grade 10 is close to 43%.

o In Himachal Pradesh, this figure is higher than 54%.

o Kerala tops the list with almost 72% of these mothers receiving high school education.