Mission Buniyaad programme: Parents to turn teachers, take classes at home

New Delhi: The Delhi government’s education department will launch a three-week pilot project in 26 of its schools from April 12, where parents of children in Class 7 are being roped in to teach their kids in their free time under the Mission Buniyaad programme — a scheme that aims to improve foundational learning.

The orientation of parents has begun and is being conducted by the Directorate of Education and will continue till April 10.

Mission Buniyaad, was launched by the Delhi government in April of 2018, as a scheme to help ensure that all children of Class 3 to Class 8 are able to at least read, write and do basic maths. The aim, the government said, was to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy with targeted intervention.

As per a report prepared by Boston Consulting Group last year, 41% of parents in Delhi government schools were not aware of the Mission Buniyaad programme.

Teachers associated with the project said that the orientation sessions were being conducted in schools or through phone calls – depending on the school’s preference. Devinder Juneja, a mentor teacher who is working on the project, said parents of around 350 Class 7 students of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Nehru Vihar were called in small batches for orientation of the learning material.

“Since students are now being engaged in online learning, teachers need support from parents or family members to ensure that the worksheets are being done correctly and not just being copied. Teachers also need help in identifying learning gaps and this is where the parents come in. In our school, we invited parents to come and collect books for the new session and did their orientation on the same day. Around 3-4% did not come to school and so they were given the orientation over phone,” he said.

Officials of the education department said that teachers have been conducting classes under the Mission Buniyaad scheme during summer breaks, and last year parents too were roped in for some of the activities as schools were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Delhi government this year is attempting to increase parental engagement, they added.

“Content will be shared weekly with parents to engage children in improving their foundational skills. The content will consist cue cards, IVRS [interactive voice learning systems], and supporting learning videos…The Mission Buniyaad scheme will be run for 100 working days, to fill the learning gap caused due to the pandemic,” read the minutes of the meeting — chaired by the Director of Education Udit Prakash Rai — last month.

Since schools run by the municipal corporations of Delhi have classes only up to 5, students switch to Delhi government schools in Class 6. A senior education department official, who was present during the meeting on March 23, said the idea was to focus on these students, who would have now been promoted to Class 7 despite not having attended in-person classes in over a year.

“Whenever the schools reopen, these students will be returning to offline classes after one and a half years, especially the class 7 students. Keeping this in mind, we identified 26 schools and wanted to have some preparation before July. So, we wanted to do a pilot to see how learning content could be done using parental engagement,” the official said.

Content will be shared with parents in three ways – through WhatsApp groups, text messages along with automated calls, and via printed copies from school. Heads of the 26 government schools, mentor teachers, and Mission Buniyaad coordinators will be responsible for the orientation of parents of class 7 students, class teachers, and school management committee members (SMC).

The department has also formed a support system – comprising school stakeholders and non-governmental organization Saajha foundation – for content-related requirements and circulating the message to parents.

“When the pandemic struck last year, we were discussing activities that parents could engage their children in and continue the learning. With a thorough orientation for parents this time and a structured pattern, the teachers’ role will be minimized and parents will assume more responsibility. Even if these children are first-generation learners, our support team will equip parents to identify where the children are getting stuck so that we can stage targeted intervention,” said Bhavna Sawnani, mentor teacher at Delhi government schools.

Mohammad Nasir, a parent and a school management committee member at a government school in Rouse Avenue, said the move was definitely likely to help parents and students. “Even if parents only have basic literacy, the guidance from teachers and schools will help them in becoming more involved in their child’s education. But with rising Covid-19 cases again, conducting a physical orientation will be a challenge and online orientation won’t be a feasible option as not all parents have internet. The school management committee members had to struggle to call even board students back to school.”