PIB Summaries 22 March 2022

CONTENTS

1. Navroz
2. NIPUN Bharat Programme
3. Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE) 

Navroz

Focus:  GS I- Festivals

Why in News?

Navroz is the new year celebrations for Parsis (Zoroastrians) and Muslims (both Shia and Sunni) celebrated on 21st March every year.

About Navroz:

• In 1079 AD, a Persian (Iranian) king named Jalaluddin Malekshah introduced this festival to generate revenue and collect taxes from people.
• The time of the festival is decided in Iran and then it is passed on to the entire Zoroastrian population in the world.
• It was observed on March 21 to mark the beginning of spring and the day of equinox.
• The equinoxes are the only time when both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere experience roughly equal amounts of daytime and night time.
• It is inscribed in the list of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of India.
• In India it is known as Jamshed Navroz.
• Navroz is also known as Jamshed-i-Navroz after the Persian King, Jamshed, who is credited to have created the Persian Calendar known as the Shahenshahi Calendar.

NIPUN Bharat Programme

Focus: GS II- Education

Why in News?

The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India has launched the National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy called National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) on 5thJuly 2021 under the aegis of Centrally Sponsored Scheme of SamagraShiksha.

About the Programme:

• This Mission was launched under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha.
• It will focus on providing access and retaining children in foundational years of schooling; teacher capacity building; development of high quality and diversified Student and Teacher Resources/Learning Materials; and tracking the progress of each child in achieving learning outcomes.
• It aims to cover the learning needs of children in the age group of 3 to 9 years.
• It emphasizes to focus on every child for developing basic language; literacy and numeracy skills which will help them develop into better readers and writers.
• It envisages making the experience of learning at the foundational stage Holistic, Integrated, Inclusive, Enjoyable, and Engaging.
• The unique feature is that the goals of the Mission are set in the form of Lakshya Soochi or Targets for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy.
• The success of NIPUN Bharat will primarily depend on teachers, so, there will be a special emphasis on capacity building of teachers. 
• A special package for foundational literacy and Numeracy under NISHTHA is being developed by NCERT and around 25 lakh teachers teaching at pre-primary to primary grade will be trained this year.

Following outcomes have been envisaged from implementation of the goals and objectives of NIPUN Bharat Mission:

• Foundational skills enable to keep children in class thereby reducing the dropouts and improve transition rate from primary to upper primary and secondary stages.
• Activity based learning and conducive learning environment will improve quality of education.
• Innovative pedagogies such as toy-based and experiential learning will be used in classroom transaction thereby making learning a joyful and engaging activity.
• Intensive capacity building of teachers will make them empowered and provide greater autonomy for choosing the pedagogy.
• Holistic development of the child by focusing on different domains of development like physical and motor development, socio-emotional development, literacy and numeracy development, cognitive development, life skills etc. which are interrelated and interdependent, which will be reflected in a Holistic Progress Card.
• Children to achieve steeper learning trajectory which may have positive impacts on later life outcomes and employment.
• Since almost every child attends early grades, therefore, focus at that stage will also benefit the socio-economic disadvantageous group thus ensuring access to equitable and inclusive quality education.

Samagra Shiksha

• Samagra Shiksha – an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12 has been, therefore, prepared with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes.
• It subsumes the three erstwhile Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
• This sector-wide development programme/scheme would also help harmonise the implementation mechanisms and transaction costs at all levels, particularly in using state, district and sub-district level systems and resources, besides envisaging one comprehensive strategic plan for development of school education at the district level. The shift in the focus is from project objectives to improving systems level performance and schooling outcomes which will be the emphasis of the combined Scheme along-with incentivizing States towards improving quality of education.

Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE)

Focus: GS III- Growth and Development

Why in News?

Directorate General of Training, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is implementing World Bank assisted project Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE) project at a total cost of Rs. 2200 crore.

About Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE) project

• The STRIVE (Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement) project, supported by the World Bank, aims to improve the relevance and efficiency of skills training given through Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and apprenticeships.
• It is an outcome-oriented programme that marks a transition in the government’s vocational education and training implementation strategy from inputs to outcomes.
• The project duration is 5 years (2017-2022).
• Under the project, 426 ITIs including 29 Private ITIs in 33 States & UTs have been selected. Also, 33 Industry Clusters (ICs) in 12 States have been selected in the country.

Objectives:

• It will incentivize ITIs to improve overall performance, including apprenticeship, by involving SMEs, business associations, and industry clusters.
• It will improve institutional reforms and improve the quality and market relevance of skill development training programmes in long-term vocational education training.
• The project intends to improve institutions such as the State Directorate of Training and Employment, CSTARI, NIMI, NSTIs, and ITIs in order to build a robust structure for delivering quality skill development training.

Finance

It is a Central Sector Scheme (CSS) with a budget outlay of INR 2200 Crore (US $ 318 million) covering the following 4 result areas:

• Improved performance of ITI.
• Increased Capacities of State Governments to support ITIs and Apprenticeship Training
• Improved Teaching and Learning.
• Improved and Broadened Apprenticeship Training.