Nishant Saxena

Over 20 million students enrolled in classes 1 to 8 across more than 150,000 government-run primary and upper primary schools, including Kasturba Gandhi Girls Residential Schools, spread over 75 districts in the state of Uttar Pradesh, will now be taught subjects in a fun-n-learn way.

The state government has released a budget of INR 21.38 crore for the purpose of preparing quality Teaching Learning Material (TLM) in compliance with the provisions of the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Each school has been given a grant of INR 1,600 for this purpose.

This information was conveyed by Director General (School Education) Vijay Kiran Anand in a communication dated March 2 sent to all Basic Shiksha Adhikaris (BSAs). 

Education World is in possession of the communication, which states that approximately INR 30.81 lakh was being released for Kanpur Dehat’s 1,926 schools, INR 28.59 lakh for Kanpur Nagar’s 1,787 schools, INR 17.55 lakh for Kaushambi’s 1,097 schools, INR 26.01 lakh for Lucknow’s 1,626 schools, INR 18.34 lakh for Varanasi’s 1,149 schools, INR 40.12 lakh for Agra’s 2,508 schools, INR 45.98 lakh for Prayagraj’s 2,874 schools, and INR 17.29 lakh for Meerut’s 1,081 schools, among others. 

Vijay Sonker, a primary school headmaster in Sitapur, confirmed that “We are in receipt of the order. The budget would follow. Information about TLM would also be taken from all institutions during the school inspections starting from March 13.”

Under NEP-2020, class-wise TLM is to be created in each school to facilitate project- and concept-based, joyful learning, and critical thinking to make the classroom environment child-centered and enjoyable. Various subjects will be explained to primary and upper-primary children through different games as part of the initiative. 

Children from classes 1 to 5 will be taught English using 28 different types of TLMs, including a magic word chart, snakes and ladders, color name charts, and fruit and vegetable cut-outs. Meanwhile, children in classes 6 to 8 will be taught through 37 different types of TLMs, including riddle cards, tense wheel, question mark snake, and action verb villa. Children in upper primary classes will be taught using TLMs like puppetry, search for antonyms, the window of synonyms, etc.

Likewise, separate TLM is prescribed for subjects like mathematics, science, social science, etc. The officials explained that some of these materials are available in the market, while most will be specially prepared for the kids.

Also Read: Uttar Pradesh Budget 2023-24: Education gets over Rs 20,000 crore allocation