The missing piece in global efforts to improve FLN is pedagogy. We rarely question which pedagogy is employed. The pedagogy needs to be questioned for both literacy and numeracy, and for all subjects learning.

Are the children learning well? Are they

learning fast? Are they learning joyfully? Is everyone feeling well in the process? Are the children learning the 6C Skills of the 21st century, by design, within the new pedagogy? Are the children emerging as harmonious peace makers and worldcitizens?

DISRUPTIVE FLN

Timely new action is of the essence.

Let's step-up-the-act, together.

As per UNICEF, the Covid-19 pandemic has left 70% of 10-year-olds worldwide lacking basic skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Pre-Covid-19, global learning levels were already a cause for alarm, with rates dropping from 53% in 2015 to 58% in 2019, as per the World Bank.

45-DAYS-TO-FLN CHALLENGE

An invitation to all governments and schools

DEVI Sansthan is offering governments the opportunity to take part in the 45- DAYS-TO-FLN CHALLENGE, which is provided for free and designed as a research project. The challenge is available at two levels:

Steps in the implementation are

• Selection of Schools (random)
• Pre-assessment
• Online training for teachers and principals
• Online training for supervisory staff and key resource persons
• Classroom implementation
• Supportive supervision, review meetings, and sharing on WhatsApp groups
• Post-assessment after 45 days
• Review meeting and next steps

EVIDENCE

Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)

Prof. Fernando Reimers of HGSE released "Rebuilding Resilient Education Systems After the COVID-19 Pandemic" in the first week of March 2023, which is now available on Amazon. Chapters 8 and 10 of the book cover the ALfA program, with four Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) students documenting the program's implementation on Foundational Literacy & Numeracy (FLN) in India's Low- Performing District of Shamli in Uttar Pradesh (Chapter 8). Additionally, four other HGSE students wrote about the program's implementation in the Maldives (Chapter 10).

Following tenure as a Young Professional and Economist at the World Bank, Dr. Sunita Gandhi, Founder DEVI Sansthan—Dignity, Education, Vision International—returned to India with the primary objective of exploring solutions to the critical global problem of foundational literacy and numeracy.

Additionally, she wanted to serve her family's City Montessori School in Lucknow, which holds the Guinness World Record for being the largest school globally, and was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 2002.