The seven musical notes of education to solve the learning crisis

“The 21st century will belong to India.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an address earlier this year and this statement has had a ripple effect through all spheres of development. In 2023, India contributed 16% to global economic growth, with a 7.2% Gross Domestic Product growth. While this was the second-highest among G 20 nations, to sustain this economic surge to build India up as the third largest economy, to truly be a Viksit Bharat as a country we need to focus on the fundamental pillar of ensuring quality education for our children.

With 20% of the global working population projected to emerge from India by 2047, we are poised to become a powerhouse of talent. However, a significant part of this workforce is in their early grades and the stark reality is that nearly three quarters of our children cannot read with comprehension or perform basic mathematical operations by the time they complete grade three.

Recognising the crucial role of education for a Viksit Bharat, the Government of India launched the National Education Policy (NEP) in 2020. NEP called out the critical role of early learning, and the ministry of education then launched India’s early learning mission--NIPUN Bharat (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy) in 2021. This mission has successfully catalysed the entire education ecosystem to prioritise foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) by redefining early grade teaching and learning.

Take the example of Sunita (name changed), a visually challenged government school teacher from Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Daily, after school, she gets her husband to read to her the Sandarshika (a teacher’s guidebook under NIPUN UP) while she listens to YouTube videos from the guide to plan her class for the next day. Sunita’s dedication and creative adaptation of pedagogical techniques exemplifies the positive changes being driven by the NEP and NIPUN Bharat Mission. Over the past three years, NIPUN has inspired and energised lakhs of teachers and education functionaries, like Sunita, around the common goal of all our children enjoying learning to read with meaning and understanding and learning basic arithmetic functions. It has created significant momentum and initial results across many states have been encouraging.

For the sankalp (i.e., resolve) of NIPUN for all our children to reach the stage of siddhi (i.e., achievement), we need India’s education system to cover the pathway of shiksha ke saat swar from sankalp to siddhi.

The swar after sankalp is “Sadhan” (i.e., resources), and we need to begin from the very basics--a school building that is bright and well-lit with a spacious playground, adequate play equipment, a compound wall, toilets & water facility. One major challenge in government schools is managing complex classroom dynamics in the context of multi-grade, multilevel classrooms. This places immense pressure on teachers to ensure equitable learning outcomes for all students, despite varying levels of readiness and abilities. And hence the ideal solution would be for the school system to be reorganised to ensure there is a teacher in every grade in the primary schools. The teachers need to be equipped with teaching learning materials--structured tools covering the spectrum from learning outcomes framework and lesson plans to student workbooks and assessment items.

Another set of sadhan is EdTech solutions for student learning. Leveraging EdTech solutions for home learning, that are integrated with classroom pedagogy and solutions, offer the opportunity for increasing learning time for our children. Results of a recently-conducted study on EdTech solution Chimple's teacher-led at-home learning programme in Haryana showed that a daily 10 mins usage of the Chimple App, over a nine-month intervention period was equivalent to one-additional year of schooling for children. There is immense potential for using appropriate EdTech in the most impactful manner.

The next swar is sadhana (i.e., practice). Resources like teaching learning materials are necessary but not sufficient for classroom practices to strengthen. Teachers need effective training and professional development and mentoring support from education functionaries. We have to continue to motivate & engage our teachers to be the prime movers of positive transformation in the classrooms. The adoption of digital tools for professional development during Covid has given us the opportunity to offer a blend of online and offline modules for professional development for all cadres of education functionaries.

Then the swar of sameeksha (i.e., review and reflection) requires assessment of learning outcomes. Formative assessments help teachers ‘check for understanding’ on an ongoing basis to ensure children in their class are acquiring grade-level competencies. Education functionaries who visit schools also become a critical source of learning outcomes data from spot assessments during classroom observations. These need to be further supplemented by periodical competency-based census assessment (CCAs) conducted by an independent body. Analysis of CCAs offer a rich reflection point for peer group discussions and cluster level meetings. We need to tap into India’s digital power to support this reflection of teaching and learning. An interesting example of technology for governance is Uttar Pradesh’s NIPUN Gunvatta app for mentoring visits. In December 2023, mentors used the app to visit more than 1,79,000 schools for classroom observations and spot assessments and 1,05,000 teachers used the app monthly to enhance their teaching practices. The Vidya Samiksha Kendras (VSK) being set up in many states are improving governance further. In VSK Gujarat, student-wise information on learning outcomes for 50 lakh plus students in government and aided schools are collected in real-time, laying the infrastructure for personalised learning solutions.

The next swar is “Samvad” (i.e., dialogue). The focus on all our children's learning has to be central to conversations across peer learning groups of teachers, cluster and district review meetings, parent teacher meetings, and district reviews by the state leadership.

A key dialogue that needs to be taken to action is access to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). 90% of a child’s cumulative brain development occurs prior to the age of six and a good quality ECCE system can ensure that all children achieve the desirable cognitive and socio-emotional development milestones and enter their school journey with the essential skills. Today, barely 20% of government schools offer pre-primary education and only 8% have dedicated ECCE teachers. NEP, 2020 envisages that “prior to the age of 5 every child will move to a preparatory class or bal vatika which has an ECCE qualified teacher”. It is imperative that the pre-primary stage for our 5 year olds be integrated with NIPUN Bharat--our five-year-olds need their own equivalent of a kindergarten class with a dedicated educator.

The penultimate swar to reach siddhi is sudhar (i.e., improvement). This will come from making NIPUN a societal mission. Given the centrality of good quality education in the early years to the nation's development, we need active participation of parents, communities, local bodies, legislators and parliamentarians, corporate giving and philanthropists and media houses to hold the system accountable for sudhar.

India’s 26 crore school-going children of today will be the global citizens of tomorrow shaping Viksit Bharat. All stakeholders need to come together for purpose driven implementation of NEP and NIPUN Bharat to make quality teaching-learning happen in all our classrooms, every day, for every child. We must move from sankalp (resolve) to siddhi (achievement) traversing the exciting pathways of sadhan (resources), sadhana (practice), sameeksha (review and reflection), samvad (dialogue) and sudhar (improvement). We must capitalise on the positive ambience of Amrit Kaal to create a Sushikshit Bharat.

This article is authored by IV Subba Rao, retired IAS officer and former chief of literacy and non-formal education, UNESCO, and Shaveta Sharma-Kukreja, CEO and MD, Central Square Foundation.