Jammu August 5: Deep Raj Kanethia, Director Samagra Shiksha Department of School Education J&K, said that since two years of NIPUN Bharat Mission have passed, it has become mandatory to track the students' learning levels so far to declare the school as NIPUN School. He was speaking in a One-Day Capacity-Building Workshop of Education Officers organized by the National Development Foundation in collaboration with the Directorate of Samagra Shiksha J&K, the Directorate of School Education Jammu and in partnership with UNICEF India held at The Institution of Engineers, Channi, Jammu. Around 100 HOIs ZEOs and Teachers of the target schools of Samba and Jammu participated in the workshop.

Sh. Ajeet Sharma, Coordinator Quality Samagra Shiksha in his interaction with the participants, shared NFS Study. He also shared his experiences at the National level and the appreciation received by the school education department at the National Level. Other resource persons include Assistant coordinator quality Samagra Mr Sayeed Fayaz, Ms. Jaswinder Kour, Coordinator Pre-primary and Mr. Sunny Kumar, Programme Manager National Development Foundation. Resource Persons Sensitized the participants on different components of FLN Leadership, FLS Study both National and state specific, Roles and responsibilities of education officers and developing learning skills with understanding. A question-answer session was also held between Participants and resource persons.

Mr. Jagdeep Padha, Administrative Officer Samagra Shiksha, discussed in detail the five pillars of NEP 2020 with special reference to FLN. Sh. Kewal Krishan CEO Samba also spoke and appealed the participants to share the learning of the workshop with their fellow Teachers and School Management Committees.

Mr. Bilal Rashid Dy. Director Samagra in his address, asked participants to must read NEP and share their innovative views with Samagra Shiksha. He shared his experience of visiting Domana and Channi HSS and expressed satisfaction with their functioning.

Mr. Rajiv Kumar Khajuria in his address, stressed upon the need of enhanced cohesion with ECCE and Foundational Learning for effective implementation of the NIPUN Bharat Mission, i.e., National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding & Numeracy. He emphasized that the constitution of India, UNCRC, and NEP 2020 guarantee the Right to Development, the tool of which is only Education.

Deep Raj Kanethia Project Director Samagra Shiksha elaborating further, said that Foundational Learning is the basis of all future learning for a child. Not achieving basic foundational skills of being able to read with comprehension, writing and doing basic mathematics operations leaves the child unprepared for the complexities of the curriculum beyond grade III; many initiatives like the provision of free Textbooks, TLM, Supplementary materials, Teacher Resource Books, Activity Books for Pre-Primary, School Grant, teacher training under NISHTHA, Capacity Building Programmes etc. have been taken to accomplish the mission objective.He said that the school challenge/ ZEO Challenge method is being initiated by Samagra Shiksha under the ages of the School Education Department to declare the schools and zones NIPUN Saksham Schools and NIPUN Saksham Zones. He informed that he had already written to all concerned on 21-07-2023 regarding the same. He lauded the role of The National Development Foundation Jammu in improving the Quality of Education in J&K, focusing on ECCE and Foundational Learning.