Education Ministry Conducts Foundational Learning Survey to Access Students' Reading Ability

The Ministry of Education will be conducting a foundational learning study to provide a first-hand understanding of the learning levels of students by the end of class 3. A first-of-its-kind, it aims to set-up benchmarks for reading with comprehension in 22 Indian languages, the official notice reads.

The foundational learning study is being conducted by the NCERT in all states and UTs for four days from March 23 to 26 in almost 10,000 schools. Further, one lakh students are expected to participate in this study, the notice added.

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The objectives of the study are to conduct a large-scale assessment of the foundational learning of class 3 students to establish a baseline for the NIPUN Bharat mission. Besides, it also aims to establish reading proficiency benchmarks for fluency in languages as well as provide the data for covering aspects of foundational literacy and numeracy.

It will assess the ability to read age-appropriate known as well as unknown text at a certain pace, accurately, and with comprehension and also the foundational numeracy skills and form a baseline for the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) goals.

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“Focusing on learning achievement in the foundational years is pertinent in order to provide the learners with capabilities to make their subsequent learning experiences more meaningful and absorbing,” the notice reads. It is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 as it highlights “the ability to read and write, and perform basic operations with numbers, is a necessary foundation and an indispensable prerequisite for all future schooling and lifelong learning,” it added.

While the dimensions of learning can be manifold, the basic ability of reading with comprehension, writing and an understanding of the basic numeracy concepts such as numbers, patterns etc, relate to core learning goals at the foundational stage.

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