Building a Strong Foundation: The Importance of Literacy

According to the new National Education Policy , Foundational literacy is a Fundamental literacy which requires- listening and speaking with comprehension, Reading skills, and Writing for various purposes. The need for foundational literacy occurred due to low learning levels, Increased drop-out rates and Inappropriate language skill. 

Hence according to ‘The National mission’ , the highest priority of the education system will be to achieve universal foundation literacy in primary schools by 2025. The rest of this policy will become relevant to our students only if this most basic learning requirement of reading and writing at foundational level is first achieved.

Foundational literacy comprises the pre-existing knowledge of language which helps in the development of literacy skills in languages. The four macro skills of language learning are listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing which are very important for Foundational Literacy. The earliest years of a child's life (3 to 6 years of age) present tremendous opportunities to support literacy and life skills that form the foundation for a lifetime and fulfillment.

What are the objectives of Foundational Literacy?

The objective of Foundational Literacy is to make children competent in doing meaningful reading and writing by the time they enter grade 3. Another important factor is to develop skills among the learners to amalgamate their outside school experiences in their classroom learning to attain foundational literacy in a better way.

What is Curricular Expectation under Foundational Literacy?

The curriculum expectation under Foundational Literacy is that-

1. Pedagogy should include play-based and experiential activities 
2. Reading with Comprehension, Writing with Understanding and Speaking with Coherent thoughts.

Foundational Literacy is an ELPS Approach-

E- experience with physical objects.

L- spoken language that describes the experience.

P- pictures that represent the experience.

S- written symbols that generalize the experience.

From this review, major areas in which development must occur prior to the start of formal literacy instruction, were identified: Oral language development, Decoding (sounds and symbols), reading fluency, reading comprehension and writing.