Amid fanfare, Manish Sisodia launches ‘Mission Buniyaad’
In a bid to the improve learning outcome of students attending primary classes in Delhi government and municipal corporation schools, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday launched ‘Mission Buniyad’.
“The inability of children to read and write fluently is a reflection of the failure of the school system. This puts children in a seriously disadvantaged situation to acquire further learning,” said Sisodia, at an event launching the project.
The project will be run in all government and MCD schools and target students betwen Classes III and VIII.
The project is created along the lines of the government’s previous scheme ‘Chunauti,’ which assessed students between Classes VI and IX, dividing them into three groups based on their learning levels.
Around 50 per cent of Class III students in government, municipal and aided schools in the Capital were unable to prove their learning abilities in various subjects during the NAS conducted last year.
The survey, conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), was aimed at finding out the learning standards of schoolchildren.
“The unfortunate part is that the school system, instead of owning its own failures, projects it on children and their parents as if it is they who are at total fault,” said Sisodia.
He added that teachers and officials should reach out to children and parents through simple and easy to understand messages, and ensure that in next three months all children are able to read, write and do basic maths fluently, so that they are on the right track to attain grade-appropriate learning outcomes.
“We have built a system where the entire machinery is chasing teachers, asking for completion of syllabus but no one is looking at the fact that the children in our schools aren’t even able to read. This mission is to fix this issue,” he said.
Officials said that special efforts are being made by the government for this campaign to reach out to parents through radio ads, mega-parent teacher meetings and letter to parents to convince them to stay in Delhi for the entire duration of the campaign and send their child to school.
“During the campaign, every day, two-three hours of focused activities will be conducted by teachers with all those students between Classes III and IX who cannot read textbooks or solve basic numerical to strengthen their reading, writing and maths skills. The campaign will continue in May and June,” the officials added.
The planning for the campaign started in mid-february, when Sisodia – who also holds the Education portfolio – convened a meeting of senior Delhi government officials and local bodies to discuss the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017 data, released by NCERT.