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How Delhi govt’s ‘Mission Buniyaad’ improved literacy, numeracy of students in MCD schools

The programme was rolled out to bridge learning losses caused by Covid shutdowns. MCD data shows significant improvements within 2 months for students in classes 3 to 5.

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New Delhi: Children in schools run by the central government-aided Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are said to have shown improvement in reading, writing, and mathematics after being enrolled in Mission Buniyaad, a foundational learning programme started by the Delhi government.

According to data from the MCD, 4.5 lakh students from classes 3 to 5 in MCD schools attended Mission Buniyaad classes held between 1 April 2022 and 15 June 2022. Assessment data shows significant numbers of students went up in their ‘level’ of literacy and numeracy within this period.

Mission Buniyaad was unrolled on 1 April across government and civic schools in Delhi to help make up for learning loss caused by school shutdowns during the Covid pandemic.

Rather than teaching the syllabus grade-wise, the programme has shifted the focus of classes entirely on foundational Hindi and English literacy as well as mathematics. The students are assigned levels, from 1 to 5, based on their proficiency in these subjects.

While the MCD manages 1,530 schools in the city, with a total of 8.5 lakh students, the Delhi government’s Directorate of Education (DoE) runs 1,041 schools.

The Indian Express reported on 1 July that, after the rollout of Mission Buniyaad, 88 per cent of children in classes 3 to 5 of DoE schools, and 78 per cent in MCD schools, were able to read words. However, detailed data has not yet been made public from DoE-run schools.

The Delhi government has decided to extend the programme until the end of August this year.

“Mission Buniyaad has helped us recover from the learning loss that happened due to Covid. We also faced some problems with students who went to their villages during the summer months,” Vikas Tripathi, the MCD’s Director of Education, told ThePrint.

“However, we are hoping that the extra classes and the continuation of the programme will help us improve learning outcomes further.”


Also Read: Delhi Class 3 & 5 students fare below national average in 3 subjects, says central govt survey


What MCD data shows

To aid instruction under Mission Buniyaad, teachers are provided with training modules that cover different components of a subject.

For languages, there is a multi-pronged emphasis on speaking, comprehension, reading, and writing. For maths, concepts are broken down into physical, pictorial, and abstract forms to facilitate understanding across different levels.  

The MCD data shows that significant percentages of students have shown improvements in their literacy skills and mathematical proficiency since being enrolled in Mission Buniyaad classes.

For instance, in English, over 25 per cent of students were placed in level 1 (beginners) in April, but by 15 June, only 6 per cent were still at this level. In absolute numbers, of the 1,04,563 students who started at level one, 87,321 moved up in two months.

Meanwhile the number of students at level 3 increased by 31 per cent, to 1,39,272 from 1,06,039, in the same period. Students in the level 5 bracket doubled to 12.63 per cent (49,915) from 6.3 per cent (26,085) between 1 April and 15 June.

“The number of students at the mid-level of literacy is bound to increase as more and more students are moving up,” an MCD official, who did not wish to be named, said.

Similarly, for maths, students in the level 1 bracket reduced to 2.81 per cent (11,115) from 12.39 per cent (51,907), while those in level 4 increased to 33.52 per cent (1,32,546) from 24.5 per cent (1,02,684) by 15 June.

In Hindi, the number of students in level 1 decreased to 6.04 per cent (17,242) from 25.26 per cent (72,237), while level 4 students increased to 23.02 per cent (91,013) from 17.86 per cent (74,823).

The MCD official said that extra classes had also been launched in schools to improve learning outcomes for students who have not yet achieved grade-level proficiency in the three subjects.

About Mission Buniyaad 

Mission Buniyaad was initially started by the Delhi government in 2018 as an initiative to improve foundational literacy among students in classes 3 to 9, after the National Achievement Survey showed poor performance of students in the capital’s schools.

School shutdowns due to Covid halted the programme, but it was rejigged this year as an initiative to bridge learning gaps caused by the pandemic.

The programme was started on 1 April for classes 3 to 5 in civic schools and classes 6 to 8 in government schools. Students were enrolled in various levels after an assessment exercise.

This article has been updated to reflect the correct number of schools run by the Delhi government. 

(Edited by Asavari Singh)


Also Read: 3 Rajasthan districts top Union govt’s first-ever school index for districts


 

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