Overview
Facilitated by Pratham Education Foundation, as part of its 25th year celebration, sessions on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) are held on the third Thursday of each month.
Session 1: December 17, 2020 – introductory session
Session 2: January 21, 2021 anchored by Venita Kaul (Professor Emerita, Ambedkar University Delhi)
Session 3: February 18, 2021 anchored by Sunisha Ahuja (Education Specialist, UNICEF)
Session 4: March 18, 2021 anchored by Rukmini Banerji (CEO, Pratham)
Session 5: April 15, 2021 anchored by Sunisha Ahuja (Education Specialist, UNICEF)
In recognition of the importance and urgency of building children’s foundational skills, the National Education Policy 2020 underlines the need to ensure that all children in the country acquire foundational literacy and numeracy by 2025. With this objective in mind, a National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy is due to be launched before the end of this year.
Over the years, a great deal of knowledge has been accumulated about how best to ensure that children’s foundations are built in a timely manner. One key learning is that this process must start in the pre-primary years with some generic cognitive and language skills, well before children enter Std I, and build upward from there.
As new curriculum frameworks, learning objectives, programs, and institutional structures are put in place to ensure that as a country we are able to achieve these ambitious targets, it is vital to share, learn from, and build on what we already know, whether from research or practice. This is the objective of this monthly FLN Seminar Series.
Facilitated by Pratham Education Foundation, the webinar series will be organized by individuals and institutions with a long history of work in FLN.
Sessions
Session 1
The First Session of the Monthly Webinar Series on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) was held on December 17, 2020 from 6:30-7:30 pm IST.
The session featured inaugural remarks by Madhav Chavan, co-founder and President of Pratham Education Foundation, followed by a discussion on the objective and content of the webinar series by Venita Kaul (formerly with Ambedkar University Delhi), Sunisha Ahuja (UNICEF), Suman Bhattacharjea (ASER Centre/Pratham) and Rukmini Banerji (Pratham).
You can watch the session recording here:
Session 2
The Second Session of the Monthly Webinar Series on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy was held on January 21, 2021 from 6.30-7.30pm IST.
Topic: Why is the early years’ continuum important? A discussion.
The session was anchored by Venita Kaul and participants included Suniti Sanwal: Head, Department of Elementary Education, NCERT, New Delhi and Yogendra Bhushan: Founder Director, Bodh Shiksha Samiti, Jaipur Rajasthan.
You can watch the session recording here:
Session 3
The Third Session of the Monthly Webinar Series on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy was held on February 18, 2021 from 6.30-8:00 pm IST.
Topic: Where are our young children? Enrolment patterns along the early years continuum.
As per the NEP 2020, universal provisioning of quality early childhood development, care, and education must be achieved as soon as possible (and no later than 2030) to ensure that all students entering Grade 1 are school ready. Given the enrolment patterns of children from age 3 onwards, what are the key considerations for states in preparing their plan of action for young children? How could states use this evidence and other data in their planning?
The session was anchored by Sunisha Ahuja from UNICEF, and Lata Menon, Amrita Sengupta, and Shailendra Sharma, shared experiences from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Delhi respectively.
You can watch the session here:
Session 5
The Fifth Session of the Monthly Webinar Series on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy was held on April 15, 2021 from 6.30-8:00 pm IST.
Topic: The cost of quality early childhood care and education
Different models for the provision of quality ECCE programs are being implemented across the country, each with its own requirements in terms of financial and other kinds of resources. What could be options for public financing for ECCE in a context of shrinking budgets?
Anchor: Sunisha Ahuja, UNICEF
Speakers: Jyotsna Jha, Centre for Budget and Policy Studies
Shubhra Chatterjee, Vikramshila
You can watch the session here:
Session 4
The Fourth Session of the Monthly Webinar Series on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy was held on March 18, 2021 from 6.30-8:00 pm IST.
Topic: Supporting Young Children After a Year out of School
As schools open across the country, many children entering Std I and Std II will have had no prior preschool or school exposure. How best can schools and families support them? Is this the moment to rethink and restructure how we address the early years continuum? The panelists thought through what is desirable, what is feasible, and how these kinds of changes can be planned and implemented.
The session was anchored by Rukmini Banerji. The participants included Dhir Jhingran, Founder Director, Language and Learning Foundation; Divya Jalan, Founder Member, Action for Ability Development & Inclusion; Gaurav Goel, Founder & CEO, Samagra; and Kusum Mohapatra, Sampark Foundation.
You can watch the session here:
Recommended Reading
Session 2
Session 3
Bhattacharjea, S. and Ramanujan, P. The early years. In the Annual Status of Education Report 2018. New Delhi: ASER Centre, 2019
India Early Childhood Education Impact study. Fact sheet: Assam. New Delhi: CECED/Ambedkar University Delhi, ASER Centre, & UNICEF, 2017
India Early Childhood Education Impact study. Fact sheet: Telangana. New Delhi: CECED/ Ambedkar University Delhi, ASER Centre, & UNICEF, 2017
India Early Childhood Education Impact study. Fact sheet: Rajasthan. New Delhi: CECED/ Ambedkar University Delhi, ASER Centre, & UNICEF, 2017