NEW DELHI: Mission Buniyaad has showed a remarkable outcome, resulting in a 15 per cent rise in the ability of Delhi government school students to read their textbook, said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday. As a result, the mission will continue for two more months, Sisodia added.
"About 52 per cent of students enrolled in Classes III to IX of Delhi government schools formed the target group for Mission Buniyaad. In terms of absolute number, this is about 4.21 lakh. Of these children, about 1.18 lakh (28 per cent) learnt to read their textbooks and about 1.4 lakh (38 per cent) learnt to solve division problems of Maths," he said.
Sisodia, who also heads the Education portfolio, added that overall, before the campaign, about 48 per cent of Delhi government students in Classes III to IX could read their textbook, which is now 63 per cent.
Similarly, the ability to solve division has gone up from 54 percent to 71 per cent, he said.
"Another breakthrough is that the proportion of students who can barely recognise words or numbers is less than 10 per cent in Classes V, VII, VIII and IX. Therefore, the Education Department has decided to extend the Mission Buniyaad activities till the end of July, so that more children can read their books fluently and have a good number sense.
"The Delhi government's emphasis on strong foundational learning skills along with the rollout of Happiness Curriculum will go a long way in unleashing the real and full potential of children in our schools," noted Sisodia.
The immediate reason for launching Mission Buniyaad was the National Achievement Survey 2017 report, which had pointed out that a large proportion of government school students of classes III, V and VIII are way below their grade level.
The three Municipal Corporations of Delhi and New Delhi Municipal Council too had joined the mission, on the invitation of the Deputy Chief Minister, and implemented it in April and May, and in some case till mid-June.
Sisodia has asked the Education Secretary to convene the meeting of the three Commissioners and NDMC chairman to review the progress of Mission Buniyaad.