“Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) is not just only the foundation of education but it is also the foundation of life. It has lifelong impact and by strengthening FLN, we strengthen the base from which we can expect further educational improvement.”
—Mrs. Vibha Rani, Head of Department and State DIKSHA Coordinator, SCERT Bihar
Importance of FLN
Across the country educationists recognize that Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) is the key to learning, where at this stage students learn to read. Bihar has around 41.66 thousand schools, 1.57 teachers, 115.60 lakhs + children in foundational and preparatory stages. At the foundation stage students learn to read and at the letter stage they read to learn. The importance of FLN lies here as a foundation for learning and without basic reading, writing children struggle in their further education or risk of dropping out from education.
The report of ASER and PARAKH shows early grades do not meet the expectations in literacy and numeracy levels– shows need for action. The PARAKH 2024 survey highlights that Bihar has significant opportunities for strengthening foundational learning outcomes in Grade 3. According to the ASER Report 2024, the “highest level in the ASER reading assessment grade 2 level text”, only 26.1% of children are able to read the text and 12.7% of children do not even identify the letters, in grade 3. Only 26.3% of children in government and private schools are able to read the text at their grade level. In arithmetic std 3, 6.5% children cannot even recognise numbers from 1 to 9, 26.3% can recognise numbers up to 9 but can’t do subtraction, 17.9% can do subtraction but face difficulties in division, only 19.5% are able to do division.
According to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the highest priority for school education is to achieve NIPUN Bharat’s Goal 31st March 2027, which says “Every child should achieve FLN skills by grade 2”.
Challenges
Approx 82% students are there in the Government school and one of the challenges are multi-level, multi-grade classrooms, poor infrastructure in the schools, less availability of online resources or the use of available resources for the teachers. She says, “one of the key challenges is that many children directly come to the government schools in grade 1 without having developed the necessary pre-school capabilities and school readiness. Despite 12 years of schooling, some children still struggle with basic reading and writing at the grade level and we should take responsibilities to work or change this.”
Enrollment in Foundation stage of Education & Gender
Vision
For Bihar, this foundation is being strengthened under the leadership of State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), with the strong vision to ensure that every child acquires their learning capabilities with age-appropriate reading, writing and numeracy skills.
To digitally transform foundational education by leveraging the DIKSHA platform through Micro Improvement Projects (MIPs) alongside direct collaboration with the schools. Teacher Education Institute (TEIs) will partner with lab schools to implement and refine best practices, with all the schools designated as NIPUN schools. The successful interventions and strategies piloted in these lab schools will then be scaled and applied uniformly across all schools to ensure consistent quality and excellence in early learning. The focus on empowering teachers with enough resources, promoting activity-based learning, ensuring children’s competency in FLN, and continuous progress of children.
Adding the insights of Mrs. Vibha Rani, “All children should be able to achieve learning goals according to their grade level. A foundation needs to be built that is contextualized, connected and aligned with the goals. To achieve these FLN goals, working with early graders is crucial for school readiness.”
Initiative taken by SCERT - Activity Based Learning
SCERT is promoting Activity Based Learning as the foundation stage is crucial as it engages children in hands-on, play-oriented experiences that make learning joyful and long-lasting. By exploring, experimenting, and interacting with their environment, children develop essential skills. The approach shifts the focus from rote memorization to active participation, ensuring that children not only understand concepts but also apply them in real-life situations, laying a strong base for lifelong learning.
Impact Story: Juli Kumari’s Classroom Transformation
For Juli Kumari, a teacher at Primary School Govindchak in Saran district, professional development took a new turn when she began using the DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing), an app for teacher training & classroom resources, which opened up new ways of planning lessons & engaging students. Through training and Micro Improvement Projects (MIPs), she learned to integrate activity-based approaches and teaching-learning materials into her lessons.
The change was visible in her classroom. Children, once passive learners, began engaging with games, group work, and real-life activities. “I enjoy studying Mathematics, ma’am teaches us through play with different materials,” shared Arvind, one of her students who now confidently participates in class discussions.
Juli highlights that the DIKSHA platform provided her with structured lesson plans and activity ideas, and at the same time strengthened her confidence to support children who struggle.
Her journey reflects how empowering teachers with digital tools and continuous support can create classrooms where children learn with curiosity and joy—bringing SCERT’s vision for foundational literacy and numeracy to life.
Diksha Based – Currently, SCERT is engaged in capacity building of DIETs, course and micro-improvement projects (MIPs) on DIKSHA platform for the teachers for FLN initiatives with Mantra Social Services but she believes the real test is ahead to achieving the goals. So total- 1.79 Lakh teachers completed courses and 80 Projects in 9000 schools.
Direct Intervention through TEIs(Teacher Education Institution) – TEIs as leaders working with Lab schools and sharing resource with rest of the schools
To address these challenges, SCERT has been working on already setting up FLN Resource Center (RCs) in TEIs to build vibrant centers (RCs) under the District Empowerment Program in collaboration with Mantra. It is designed to chrome hubs of quality resources for trainee teachers from which the school can take support as well. The resources included in the centers are a collection of books– age and grade appropriate, letter cards, math manipulatives, printed charts, BaLA paintings etc. Activated FLN RC in TEIs with Trainee Teachers and Best Practices will be transferred to Lab Schools first then it would be scaled to the entire district.
Also during the in-service training all the primary grade teachers will get exposure/benefit from FLN RC. The centers will be a place from where teachers can borrow materials to use and return afterward or create their own from the low-cost resources, to ensure even the schools in remote or poor resource areas have access to quality FLN materials. Till now we have supported the stakeholders through additional resources- such as a workbook, FLN kit, training of teachers, DIKSHA (digital resource), content training with ICT training such as capacity building is one part to support with FLN needs and goals in mind. 120 nominated FLN Nodal Lecturers got the training on how these centres in anchoring foundational learning efforts at the district level, designing monthly classroom activities, and enabling collaboration between teachers and TEIs faculty. With a focus on experiential, child-centered, and activity-based learning, participants explored how meaningful pedagogy can lead to measurable improvements in foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes. The capacity building is constantly organizing online/offline workshops for the FLN initiatives.
Along with this, class two teachers have been nominated to directly support classroom-level FLN goals by using various resources such as an activity-based teacher guide, print-rich classroom materials, and the item bank of grade 2 books. At the district level, TEIs manage a dedicated WhatsApp group that connects all school principals, class two teachers, and teacher trainees, ensuring collaboration and smooth communication.
Through DIKSHA, teachers and school heads can access digital refresher courses and course based on action projects, MIPs (such as; for oral language development in grade 2 involving daily classroom discussion based on print materials, active questioning, listening and recitation of short rhymes or poems) and resources which help them integrate innovative teaching practices and use contextualized content based on their school context. The emphasis on the use of low–cost teaching materials which can be accessible easily. Along with that, using and understanding the importance of making guidelines on NIPUN Bharat and Bihar more accessible to the teachers. She said with a casual smile “I know some of our teachers are on their journey of understanding the NIPUN goals so we can help and strengthen awareness– through peer support”.
Building Foundation: through NIPUN School
For the meaningful learning outcome to achieve the FLN Mrs. Vibha Rani mentioned that schools must be envisioned as a “NIPUN School environment” – a dynamic space where children can reflect, learn, and get enrich learning experiences.
For this she says” as simply conducting training or providing materials will not be enough to desire the impact unless there is ownership, clarity, and commitment from all the stakeholders who are involved.
She candidly reflects that “many people motivate themselves through positive things that are changing in the system and the work but I see NAS Reports, ASER Reports, interaction with children and visiting schools or communities, while children are attending the school regularly, the missing part is the quality of learning they deserve is still missing. It makes me feel mournful”.
All those works she highlights collaboration has been a key of Bihar’s efforts. Speaking on partnerships Mrs. Vibha Rani the role of Mantra Social Service in capacity-building initiatives and achieving the goal of FLN is ownerable. She says “the support strengthening nodal lecturers and making resource centers vibrant has been invaluable. They stand with us whenever required, which has greatly helped our participants”.
She concludes with the thoughts that “The next important step is to ensure effective implementation on the ground and need demands, commitment, ownership and responsibilities from all of us together. Then only we will be able to truly engage and strengthen the foundation of education in Bihar”.
Conclusion
Bihar’s journey towards FLN reflects not only a systematic effort but also a deeper commitment to educational equity. Building teacher capacity, reimagining the schools as a learning place, strengthening the resources centers in Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs) and fostering partnerships, SCERT under Mrs. Vibha Rani’s leadership is laying the groundwork for the transformation.
