Padhe Bharat Campaign

Context:

On January 1, 2022, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched a 100-day Reading Campaign called Padhe Bharat Campaign

About the Padhe Bharat Campaign-

• Padhe Bharat is a 100 Days Reading Campaign which is in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
• It emphasises on the promotion of joyful reading culture for children by ensuring the availability of age-appropriate reading books for children in local/mother tongue/regional/tribal Language.
• There is a need to create an enabling environment in which students read for pleasure and develop their skills through a process that is enjoyable and sustainable and which remains with them for life.
• Why is reading important for children?
• Reading is the foundation of learning, which motivates students to read books independently, develops creativity, critical thinking, vocabulary and the ability to express both verbally and in writing.
• It helps children to relate to their surroundings and real-life situation.
• The habit of reading, if inculcated at an early age, helps in brain development and enhances imagination and provide a conducive learning environment for children.
• Padhe Bharat campaign will focus on children studying in Balvatika to Grade 8.
• The reading campaign will be organised for 100 days (14 weeks) starting from 1st January 2022 to 10th April 2022.
• The reading campaign aims to have the participation of all stakeholders at the national and state level including children, teachers, parents, community, educational administrators etc.
• One activity per week per group has been designed with the focus on making reading enjoyable and building lifelong association with the joy of reading.
• This campaign has also been aligned with the vision and goals of the foundational Literacy and Numeracy mission – NIPUN Bharat Scheme.
• The 100 days reading campaign will also focus on Indian languages including mother tongue/local/regional languages.
• It is in this regard, 21st February which is celebrated as International Mother Tongue Day has also been integrated with this campaign.
• This day will be celebrated with the activity of Kahani Padho Apni Bhasa Main (Reading story in own language) across the country by encouraging children to read in their mother tongue/local language.
• This will help in promoting the local language and culture of our society.
• Hence, 100 days Reading Campaign is envisaged to support and encourage students, along with their schools, teachers, parents, and communities, in every possible way and encourage children to read for a joyful learning experience.
• Department of School Education & Literacy invites all stakeholders to participate wholeheartedly in this campaign to build a strong foundation for our children.

About ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’ (PBBB)

• It is a sub-programme of erstwhile Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which is continued under the new integrated scheme Samagra Shiksha to ensure quality at the foundational years of schooling.
• Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat” is planned in a twin track approach. (i) to improve language development by creating an enduring interest in reading and writing with comprehension; and (ii) to create a natural and positive interest in mathematics related to the physical and social world. The two tracks of Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat are:
• Early Reading and Writing with Comprehension.
• Early mathematics.

Objectives of the scheme-

• To promote early reading and writing with comprehension skills in children, and also basic numeracy skills.
• To enable children to become motivated, independent and engaged readers and writers with comprehension possessing sustainable and lasting reading and writing skills and achieve learning levels appropriate to the class of study.
• To make the children understand the reasoning in the domains of number, measurement and shapes; and enable them to become independent in problem solving by way of numeracy and spatial understanding skills.
• To associate reading and writing with the experience of joy and real life situations.
• To recognize the social perspective of home- school transition and the role of children’s literature in the process of building independent and engaged readers and writers.

Education Policies in India

Education Policy lays particular emphasis on the development of the creative potential of each individual. It is based on the principle that education must develop not only cognitive capacities -both the ‘foundational capacities’ of literacy and numeracy and ‘higher-order’ cognitive capacities, such as critical thinking and problem-solving — but also social, ethical, and emotional capacities and dispositions.

The implementation of previous policies on education has focused largely on issues of access and equity. The unfinished agenda of the National Policy on Education 1986, modified in 1992 (NPE 1986/92), is appropriately dealt with in this Policy. A major development since the last Policy of 1986/92 has been the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 which laid down legal underpinnings for achieving universal elementary education.

Evolution of Education Policy in India

1. University Education Commission (1948-49)
2. Secondary Education Commission (1952-53)
3. Education Commission (1964-66) under Dr D. S. Kothari
4. National Policy on Education, 1968
5. 42nd Constitutional Amendment, 1976- Education in Concurrent List
6. National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986
7. NPE 1986 Modified in 1992 (Programme of Action, 1992)
8. S.R. Subrahmanyam Committee Report (May 27, 2016)
9. K. Kasturirangan Committee Report (May 31, 2019)

Some of the major path-breaking policies and their features:

To read about New Education Policy: Click here

News Source: PIB

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