Lucknow: In a first, all 1.3 lakh primary schools across Uttar Pradesh will undergo assessment under the NIPUN School Assessment, a qualitative exercise based on a child’s performance across a wide range of experiences and activities.Addressing over six lakh teachers and officials from basic and secondary education through a YouTube session, additional chief secretary, basic and secondary education, Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma said, “Teachers should ensure 100% of students take the assessment and are provided a comfortable environment by the trainees, who must not pressurise children in any way.”During his interaction, Sharma stressed that teachers play a central role in ensuring children attain proficiency in foundational literacy and numeracy. “Significant structural reforms have been implemented under the NIPUN Bharat Mission, such as transformation of classrooms, on-site support for teachers through ARPs, and continuous capacity building. Therefore, teachers must take responsibility for making children and their schools NIPUN,” Sharma said. Scheduled from Jan 27, the NIPUN assessment will be conducted by trainees pursuing the Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd). He added that the assessment should be carried out with complete transparency and impartiality. “The objective of this assessment is to identify learning gaps in children, not to take any punitive action. The focus is not on identifying which school is performing well or where there are shortcomings, but on identifying deficiencies through the assessment so that corrective measures can be taken,” he said. Sharma told teachers that along with NIPUN Bharat, curbing dropouts between Classes 5 and 6, and between Classes 8 and 9, is equally important. He shared that in the future, the govt plans to extend the NIPUN Bharat Mission to Classes 3 to 5, to ensure structured efforts are made to help children acquire expected grade-level and subject-specific competencies in higher classes.
