MS. SANGITA DANDAPAT, PROJECT HEAD – FOUNDATIONAL LITERACY & NUMERACY KOTAK EDUCATION FOUNDATION.
Historically, the Indian education system placed greater emphasis on later stages of schooling, including secondary, higher secondary, and higher education. Over time, classroom evidence, assessments, and global learning data have shown that progress in later grades is difficult without strong foundations in the early years. This is critical because early childhood, up to 8 years, shapes cognitive, social, emotional, language, and physical development. (UNICEF)
Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) has therefore emerged as a national priority in response to a deep learning poverty challenge. The World Bank defines learning poverty as the inability of a child to read and understand a simple text by age 10. Its India Learning Poverty Brief reports that, according to the latest available pre-COVID data, 56% of children in India at late primary age are not proficient in reading, after adjusting for out-of-school children. This shows that the issue is not only enrollment, but whether schooling translates into learning.
The National Education Policy 2020 recognises this urgency by identifying FLN as the highest priority of the education system. NIPUN Bharat further translates this into a mission, aiming for every child to achieve FLN by the end of Grade 3 by 2026-27. However, FLN succeeds only when policy reaches classroom practice.
Teachers face many challenges because foundational classrooms are diverse. Children in the same class learn at different levels and often come from different language backgrounds. The Foundational Learning Study highlights that around 40% of children learn in a language different from their home language. Some may read simple words, some may still recognise letters, while others may speak fluently but struggle to connect sounds, symbols, and meaning. In numeracy too, children may count mechanically without understanding quantity or number relationships.
This makes FLN both a pedagogical and practical challenge. It cannot be reduced to alphabets, numbers, or textbook exercises. It includes oral language, comprehension, vocabulary, number sense, reasoning, confidence, and problem-solving. The National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage emphasises learning through play, stories, conversations, materials, movement, and meaningful experiences. Teachers need practical support to translate these ideas into routines.
Therefore, teacher training must answer one clear question: what can the teacher do differently tomorrow? It should include demonstrations, mentoring, formative assessment, grouping strategies, local materials, and support for multilingual learners.
For this classroom shift to sustain, FLN cannot remain the teacher's responsibility alone. The government brings direction and reach, while NGOs and CSR partners can support need-based investment in teacher development, mentoring, assessment systems, resources, and purposeful technology.
Over the next five years, success should be measured not only through enrolment, training numbers, or material distribution, but through visible changes in classroom practice and children's learning. India has made FLN a national priority. The next step is to make it a meaningful everyday experience for every child.
Author By: Ms. Sangita Dandapat
