A National Steering Committee (NSC) has been formed for the implementation of NIPUN today, October 25. The Department of School Education and Literacy had launched the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat Mission in July this year with the aim to achieve the goal of universal proficiency in foundational literacy and numeracy for every child by end of Class 3 by 2026-27, as envisaged by National Education Policy 2020, an official statement said.
The newly-formed National Steering Committee to implement NIPUN Bharat will be chaired by the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi will be the vice-chairperson.
The objective of the committee will be to oversee the progress of the National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy and provide guidance on policy issues and achieve the desired target in 2026-27. The committee will also review programmatic and financial norms periodically to ensure they are synchronised with targets to be achieved.
To disseminate tools for the measurement of yearly progress in the form of guidelines is one of the responsibilities of the NSC. It seeks to develop methodology of assessment to analyse the progress and provide feedback to States/UTs.
“To prepare and approve a National Action Plan (based on the State’s Action Plans) with KRAs for every State/UT vis-à-vis factors attributable for the gaps (i.e., lack of Fund, Vacancies, Teachers, Demography, Local issues, Need of Training for teachers, Curriculum and pedagogy related),” the official statement added.
The other members of the NSC include: Secretary, School Education and Literacy; Director NCERT; Secretary Education Uttar Pradesh; Secretary Education, Karnataka; Director SCERT Gujarat and Director SCERT Sikkim.
Representatives of seven union ministries — Women and Child Development, Tribal Affairs, Social Justice and Empowerment, Health and Family Welfare, Finance, Electronics and Information Technology and Panchayati Raj; two experts from NCERT and RIE Ajmer; and three external experts will also be members of the committee.
