NIPUN Bharat (Foundational Literacy & Numeracy)

Young children deserve an enthusiastic start in life, with quality early experiences so that they grow, learn, develop and flourish fully.

Young children deserve an enthusiastic start in life. The early years shape how a child adjusts to school and how far their learning goes in the years after — which is why the National Education Policy 2020 reimagines schooling in a 5+3+3+4 structure, with a five-year Foundational Stage at its base.

That stage covers three years of Balvatika and Grades 1–2, spanning ages 3 to 8. It is the window in which social values, personal habits and the basic tools of reading and number sense take root — and where Samagra Shiksha, Manipur has concentrated its NIPUN Bharat effort: purpose-built teaching materials, trained teachers and mentors, and a school-readiness programme reaching almost every government school in the state.

Progress, 2024–25

What the mission Has Reached This Year

25,227

Teachers trained under NISHTHA 3.0 — 88.03% of target

1,933

Government schools running Vidya Pravesh, the school-readiness programme

23,783

Grade I children covered under Vidya Pravesh

443

Mentors identified and mapped to schools

100%

School Management Committees trained on NIPUN Bharat

294

Schools that opened a new pre-school / Balvatika section

1,395

Pre-primary teachers trained in FLN

90 days

Vidya Pravesh delivered in every participating school

80

Anganwadi workers trained in FLN

2

Languages TLM translated into — Manipuri and Hindi

Policy update, 2025–26

ECCE and NIPUN Bharat are Now One Head ----- FLN-FS:

Under Samagra Shiksha, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) and NIPUN Bharat had run as separate interventions in programmatic and financial norms — creating confusion for states during Annual Work Plan and Budget preparation. To fix this, both have been streamlined into a single head, Foundational Literacy and Numeracy–FS (FLN-FS), reinforcing every intervention across the full Foundational Stage, ages 3 to 8.

The integration was presented on 17 January 2025 at Vigyan Bhawan during the review meeting of States/UTs, and all states and union territories have been asked to prepare their Annual Work Plan and Budget proposals under FLN-FS for the Project Approval Board meetings of 2025–26 — bringing greater clarity to resource allocation and monitoring.

Reviewed with States/UTs · Ministry of Education · 17 January 2025

Samagra Shiksha 2.0

Five Goals Driving the Mission:

1. Access: Foundational skills for every child, ages 3–8. All children in the 3–6 preschool and 6–8 Grade I–II age group have access to foundational learning, and achieve foundational skills by Grade II.
2. Materials: High-quality, diversified learning resources. Children's and teachers' resources and learning materials made available for joyful, hands-on learning in every classroom.
3. Readiness: School readiness in every Grade I classroom. The Vidya Pravesh / School Readiness module developed, adopted or adapted, and implemented in all schools at Grade I.
4. Teachers: Trained teachers, Grades I to V. Teachers — including newly appointed ones — trained with the capacity to deliver high-quality instruction across the foundational stage.
5. Tracking: Technology-enabled monitoring. A robust, technology-enabled monitoring mechanism developed to track every child's progress toward learning outcomes.

Systems in place

The Governance Backbone Behind the Numbers:

1. State Level Implementation Committee constituted
2. State Mission Director designated
3. State Level Programme Management Unit formed
4. District Level Steering Committee constituted
5. Academic Task Force notified, with roles & responsibilities
6. District Level Programme Management Unit formed
7. Five-Year Action Plan prepared
8. Item / Question Bank developed by SCERT / DIET
9. NIPUN Bharat Mission Implementation Guidelines translated & contextualized
10. NIPUN Pledge translated and displayed — in all 1,933 primary schools
11. Jaadui Pitara — state-contextualized as Mahei Maitu & Mahei Lubak
12. Balvatika 1, 2 & 3 running — one year each, ages 3–4, 4–5, 5–6

Teaching-Learning Materials

Mahei Paitu — local learning kits, Classes I–V:

Mahei Paitu puts interactive games, story cards and activity-based tools directly into the hands of children in Classes I to V, with a user manual guiding teachers on how to use each piece.

Version 2.0, introduced in 2024–25, is aligned to the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage, the NCF for School Education, and NIPUN's own goals and competencies — and is localized for Manipur's cultural, linguistic and contextual diversity, so learning feels relatable rather than borrowed.

Reach

Built for Every State Government School:

The goal is full coverage: Mahei Paitu kits placed in every State Government school, Classes I through V, so early-grade learning outcomes and foundational literacy and numeracy skills rise together across the state.

Reading & comic textbooks

Lousing Pukei — a Pool of Wisdom:

A curated collection of books, chosen as supportive learning material, aims to fill classrooms with print — building a print-rich environment, sparking excitement for reading, and helping children develop the habit of reading for themselves.

Alongside it, the State's Comic Textbooks for Classes I–V are being realigned under NCF 2023 and NEP 2020, so every curricular goal, competency and expected learning outcome is stated clearly on the page — keeping familiar comic storytelling firmly tied to what a child is meant to learn.

Flagship resource series

The ATIYA Series:

Developed with SCERT Manipur, ATIYA is Manipur's first resource series of its kind — activity books, workbooks, poems, stories and value-education cards, built around developmental goals and Learning Outcomes for Classes 1 to 5.

• Series 1.0, Activity & Workbooks (A1–A3, W1–W3): Grade 1–3 activity books with teacher instructions and locally popular games; matching workbooks that double as assessment tools.
• Series 1.0, Poems & Stories: A poem and story book for Grades 4 and 5, built around the same Learning Outcomes.
• Series 2.0, Fun with Grammar: Grade 1–3 grammar practice that builds communication skills.
• Series 2.0, Hidden Words: Word-search puzzles across five levels, sharpening vocabulary and pattern recognition, with built-in assessment worksheets.
• Series 2.0, Value Education: Story cards for Grades 1–5, each with a short story and follow-on activities that build character alongside literacy.

Early reading

Paba Tammashi — Let's Learn to Read:

A printed early-reading handbook for Grade I, deliberately kept physical rather than digital — durable, easy to distribute, and accessible in areas with limited digital infrastructure. It shows teachers exactly where to begin, so every beginner can learn to read and comprehend with confidence, in line with NIPUN Bharat's goal of foundational literacy and numeracy by Grade 3.