PIB Summary- 3rd January, 2022 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

Padhe Bharat 

Why in News?

Union Education Minister  launched a 100 days reading campaign ‘Padhe Bharat’.

Key points:

• The launch of 100 Days Reading Campaign is in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020  which emphasises on promotion of joyful reading culture for children by ensuring availability of age appropriate reading books for children in local/mother tongue/regional/tribal Language.
• Padhe Bharat  campaign will focus on children studying in Balvatika to Grade 8.
• The reading campaign will be organised for 100 days (14 weeks) starting from 1st January 2022 to 10th April 2022.
• The reading campaign aims to have participation of all stakeholders at national and state level including children, teachers, parents, community, educational administrators etc.
• One activity per week per group has been designed with the focus on making reading enjoyable and build lifelong association with the joy of reading.
• This campaign has also been aligned with the vision and goals of foundational Literacy and Numeracy mission.
• The 100 days reading campaign will also focus on Indian languages including mother tongue/local/regional languages. This will help in promoting local language and culture of our society.

Highlights of the National Education Policy 2020

• The policy covers all the 3 stages of education, that is school education, higher education and professional education
• It includes even agricultural education, legal education, medical education, technical education, vocational education, teacher education and the research and innovation.
• Emphasizes on The early child care and education and includes it in the Ministry of Education [Ministry of HRD will be called Ministry of Education from now on]
• The policy also tries to focus on certain foundational skills that children should have in the proposed new structure of 5+3+3+4

5+3+3+4 STRUCTURE 

• The first stage of five years – (Children of 3-8 years of age)
• Is focused on discovery learning and learning by play.
• Aims to build The foundational literacy and numeracy skills
• Preparatory Stage (children in the age group of 8 to 11 year – grades 3 to 5)
• Middle Stage age group of 11-14 years – grades 6 to 8) 
• Secondary Stage (age group of 14-18 years – Grades 9-12)

Reforms in School and Secondary education

• National Education Policy 2020 says, Wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother-tongue/local language. 
• Reason behind implementing multilingualism is that, according to research children pick up languages extremely quickly between the ages of 2 and 8 and that multilingualism has great cognitive benefits to young students
• In addition to Sanskrit, the teaching of all other classical languages [in schedule 8] and literature of India will happen at schools.
• School complexes and  public library spaces should be used for adult education beyond school hours.
• Every child to learn at least one vocation and exposed to several more.
• Vocational training such as carpentry, electric work, metal work, gardening, pottery making, etc. to be the part of syllabus in schools between grade 6-8.
• By 2025, at least 50% of learners through the school and higher education system shall have exposure to vocational education.
• Bagless period for Grades 6-8 once in 10 days will be implemented.
• Ministry of Defence along with State Governments may encourage opening NCC wings in their secondary and higher secondary schools.
• Government to focus on digital infrastructure, digital content and capacity building for school and higher education.
• A National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, NCFTE 2021, will be formulated by the NCTE in consultation with NCERT. By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed. degree . Violation of the rules will attract Stringent action.
• There will be increased flexibility for students to choose the subjects to study from secondary school. It  includes subjects in physical education, the arts and crafts, and vocational skills.
• There will be no separation among curricular, extracurricular, or co-curricular activities in schools.
• In the same way, there will be NO hardline separation among ‘arts’, ‘humanities’, and ‘sciences’, or between ‘vocational’ or ‘academic’ streams.
• Subjects such as science, humanities, and mathematics will be will be taught along with physical education, the arts and crafts, and vocational skills.
• A National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy will be set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on priority.
• 360 degree holistic report card will be given to students, which will not only inform about the marks obtained in subjects, but also their skills.
• The policy also proposes to expand Right to compulsory education between 3 -18 years.
• The NEP aims to achieve fully literate society by 2030.

 Reforms in Higher education

• Restructuring the higher education system into Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3.
  (i) Tier 1 includes research universities focusing equally on research and teaching,
  (ii) Tier 2- teaching universities focusing primarily on teaching
  (iii) Tier 3 – colleges focusing only on teaching at undergraduate levels. All these institutions will gradually move towards academic, administrative, and financial autonomy. Government intends to spread ‘research culture’ at the undergraduate level.
• Foreign universities will be given special permissions and limited procedures to set up institutions in India.
• Higher Education Commission of India(HECI) will be a single overarching umbrella body the for entire higher education, except medical and legal education.
• The NEP establishes National Scholarship Fund to financially support students for higher education.
• Through NEP government aims to enhance GER [gross Enrollment Ratio] of 50% by 2035.
• Establishing National Research Foundation [NRF] to enable the culture of research amoung youth.
• Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) will be established which would digitally store the academic credits earned by students.
• Engineering institutions, like IITs, will move towards more holistic and multidisciplinary education to include arts and humanities.

PM Kisan

Why in news?

PM releases 10th instalment of financial benefit under PM-KISAN.

About PM KISAN

Nodal: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

• The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme is a Central Sector Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Scheme.
• Under the scheme an income support of 6,000/- per year in three equal installments will be provided to small and marginal farmer families having combined land holding/ownership of upto 2 hectares.
• The Scheme initially provided income support to all Small and Marginal Farmers’ families across the country, holding cultivable land upto 2 hectares.
• Its ambit was later expanded to cover all farmer families in the country irrespective of the size of their land holdings.
• Definition of family for the scheme is husband, wife and minor children.
• State Government and UT administration will identify the farmer families which are eligible for support as per scheme guidelines.
• The fund will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
• There are various Exclusion Categories for the scheme.

Some of the categories of beneficiaries who are NOT eligible for benefit under this scheme are:

• Any institutional land-holders.
• The farmer as well as any member of the family belonging to the following categories:
  (i) Former and present holders of constitutional posts
  (ii) Former and present Ministers/ State Ministers
  (iii) Former or present members of LokSabha/ RajyaSabha/ State Legislative Assemblies/ State Legislative Councils
  (iv) Former and present Mayors of Municipal Corporations
  (v) Former and present Chairpersons of District Panchayats.
  (vi) Any serving or retired officers as well as employees under the Central/ State Government Ministries /Offices/Departments.
  (vii) All retired pensioners who get a monthly pension of Rs.10,000/-or more and belonging to the above category.
  (viii) Any individual who paid their income tax in the last assessment year is not eligible under this scheme.
  (ix) Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Architects registered with Professional bodies and carrying out profession by undertaking practices.