The National Education Policy 2020 highlights foundational learning as essential for future education. The NIPUN Bharat Mission, launched on 5th July 2021, aims to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) by 2026-27. The NIPUN Axom Mission was launched in Assam on 16th November, 2021 by the Honorable Chief Minister of Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, along with the Honorable Education Minister of Assam, Dr. Ranoj Pegu, with an objective to ensure achievement of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy skills by all children by the end of Grade 3. In order to achieve this objective, the state has initiated different programs to build awareness of the community, parents, teachers, and students. This includes launch of NIPUN Axom theme song, posters, booklet etc. The NIPUN Axom initiative aims to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) for every child in Assam by the end of Grade 3 by 2027. This mission is part of the broader NIPUN Bharat program and focuses on enhancing teaching practices, learning materials, teacher capacity building, and community engagement while strengthening data-driven decision-making.
The vision of NIPUN AXOM is to create an enabling environment ensuring the universal acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy so that every child achieves the desired learning competencies in reading with comprehension, writing and numeracy by the end of Grade 3, by 2026-27.
“What has led to this sudden improvement in learning levels? All-India estimates are typically slow to change and learning levels that had been stagnant till 2010 declined slightly thereafter, only improving slowly between 2014 and 2018. We have not seen improvements of this magnitude in the last 20 years since ASER has been presenting data on foundational reading and arithmetic. Everything seems to point towards NEP 2020 and its focus on foundational skills. While this is not the first time that programs have been introduced to improve learning, what is different is that it is the first time that there has been a systemic national push to improve foundational learning outcomes. Typically, in past years, school teachers worked “to complete the curriculum”. As a result, they ended up teaching to the “top of the class” in a class that is diverse in terms of learning levels and demographic characteristics. For the first time, under NIPUN Bharat, teachers across the country are given a different brief — to focus on foundational skills.” – Wilima Wadhwa, ASER Report 2024
