Foundational Learning: Unearthing Key Issues and Redressal

The National Education Policy 2020 in India recognizes the importance of investing in the early years which is the most important indicator of productive and efficient human capital a country must ensure. The policy thus, obligates strong investment in foundational learning with a special focus on the attainment of foundational literacy and numeracy skills among children in their early years. For this, policy lays a roadmap for academic and systemic reforms in mission mode for better planning, designing, and implementation of interventions for foundational learning. Accordingly, the NIPUN Bharat Mission was launched in 2021 with targets to be achieved in five years, i.e. by 2026-27. This paper is a narrative review of the literature with problem-solving approach to spot key issues in foundational learning in India and the remediation being followed. Review suggests issues and mitigation strategies in three areas viz, achieving access to the conducive learning environment, strengthening educational and developmental aspect of learning interventions and bringing systemic reforms as wells as developing convergence mechanism to build the robust administrative structure. Findings and strategies provided in this paper would help stakeholders identify issues beforehand and take action in, timely. This learning would also be useful to the countries having similar geographical, educational, and social constraints who want to or are in the process of designing or implementing such interventions.