Kevileno Angami, Commissioner & Secretary, School Education & SCERT, on Monday stressed the need to emphasise early childhood care and learning in Nagaland.
Addressing the inaugural function of the 3 Days State Level Capacity Building for District Master Trainers for NIPUN Bharat, Foundational Literacy & Numeracy (FLN) and Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE) here at SCERT training hall, Kohima, Kevileno Angami said that prior to the New Education Policy (NEP), focus had not been given to FLN especially in the government schools but with the NEP recognising the importance of learning during the foundational years, focus has now been given to ECCE and FLN.
She stressed the need to emphasise early childhood care and learning in Nagaland, and pointed out that it’s common practice to point fingers when exams results are declared without realising that unless the foundation of learning, reading and numeracy is strong, it becomes difficult to cope in the later stages.
Angami stated that the Master Trainers will be the game changers of the state who will nurture young minds and ensure that they are moulded into persons who can understand to critically analyse things and not just memorise what’s given in the text.
Temsunaro, IAS, State Mission Director Samagra Shiksha, Nagaland in her brief address said that it is a matter of great concern for all that Nagaland’s achievement was indicated below the National average in most categories, adding that the Covid pandemic has greatly affected the learning progress for students. However, she pointed out, the pandemic has been experienced throughout the world and there is no special reason for the poor learning outcomes of the students in Nagaland. Towards this end, everyone should seriously reflect on improving the learning outcomes, she said.
Delivering the welcome address, Chumchanbeni Kikon, Director SCERT, said that with the launch of NIPUN Bharat in Nagaland on 1 December 2021 by the Chief Minister, SCERT in collaboration with Samagra Shiksha has been actively engaged in initiating and implementing FLN-related strategies and practices.
As per the report on the State of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in India, which was released on 16 December 2021, Kikon pointed out that there is a huge gap between the top scoring state in the country, Kerala with a score of 67.95, and Nagaland with a score of 42.47. Kikon further stated that in the Northeast State category, Nagaland stands in the 5th position and the gap is still big compared to Mizoram, the top scoring state in the northeast category with a score of 51.64, and added that this requires immediate attention to the learning outcomes in Foundational Literacy and Numeracy.
On the way forward, Kikon said it is upon the NIPUN Bharat Mission Nagaland to ensure that every child in Nagaland achieves the desired learning competencies in speaking, reading and writing with comprehension, perform basic mathematical operations and learn basic life skills by the end of Grade 3 by 2026-2027.
Following the three-day training programme, the same training will be conducted in the Educational Block Resource Centres (EBRCs). The next phase of training in the Block level will cover a target of 6,716 teachers and head teachers from 1,679 schools having pre-primary and primary classes. The TLMs will also be provided to about 38,519 pre-primary children and 45,213 students from classes 1-5 studying in government schools.
The three-day Master Trainers for FLN & ECCE at SCERT Kohima is organized by Samagra Shiksha in collaboration with SCERT. All stake holders from Social Welfare Department, EBRCs, DIET/SCERT and School Education/Samagra Shiksha are participating in the training programme. This is the first major convergence training program to improve Foundational Education.
