NIPUN, the National Initiative for Proficiency in reading with Understanding and Numeracy, launched by the Union Ministry of Education on July 5, 2021 aims to ensure that every child in the country attains foundational literacy and numeracy skills, by 2026-27.
Lucknow-based nonprofit DEVI Sansthan working in the field of education, has claimed that its Accelerating Learning for All (ALfA) program can help meet that target before its deadline. In a report titled, ‘Making India Literate in Weeks’, the Sansthan has cited the successful outcome of ALfA program in 15,000 schools as evidence of ALfA effectiveness. This methodology developed by experts of the Sansthan keeping in view the children of rural areas uses known-to-unknown approach which bypasses the need to learn the alphabet. Paired learning is used to teach the key skills of reading, writing and arithmetic.
The report says that about 150,000 students have demonstrated remarkable learning gains in its reasearch. Third-party measurement of test scores in various districts improved, on average, from 32% to 59% in just 45 days. The impressive results in Shamli district have featured in a chapter of a book edited by Prof. Fernando Reimers and team from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
The government’s own NIPUN Assessment Test in UP found disproportionately high scores in blocks and districts implementing ALfA. For instance, one of UP’s largest districts, Unnao, had just 15% of schools pass the NIPUN benchmark. Yet, one of its blocks, Hilauli, scored more than triple the district average, with 47% of schools NIPUN. The secret? Hilauli adopted ALfA for all its 155 (100%) schools, just two months before the test. Meanwhile Shamli, a formerly low-performing district, reached a rank of 18 out of UP’s 75 districts. ALfA had been implemented in 210 (41%) schools of Shamli.
Dr. Sunita Gandhi, founder of DEVI Sansthan, talking on the report said: “The new report, ‘Making India Literate in Weeks,’ showcases a groundbreaking teaching and learning process. All children deserve a better education from the first day, and not gap-filling year after year over decades. Blocks and districts have shown impressive learning gains with ALfA, but rapid progress will be unlocked only with the system-wide ALfA adoption by State and UT governments. This is possible without any additional costs to their budget.”
Since ALfA’s launch, DEVI Sansthan has signed MoUs with several state & UT governments, including Uttar Pradesh, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh – the latter signing up for state-wide implementation
