PANAJI
The Goa State Council of Educational Research and Training (GSCERT) will launch the Goa Foundational Learning Survey (GFLS) next month, becoming the first State-level initiative in the State to systematically assess foundational learning outcomes among students of Grades I and II.
The survey, scheduled to be conducted after October 10, will be held twice every academic year -- once in October and again in March-April -- to assess whether children are acquiring age-appropriate foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) skills in reading, writing and mathematics during the early years of schooling.
Importantly, the assessment will not be used to evaluate individual students or schools. Instead, the findings will be analysed at the taluka level to identify areas where improvement and academic intervention are required.
The GFLS will be mandatory for all schools in the State, irrespective of their medium of instruction or the category of students enrolled.
“The Goa Foundational Learning Survey (GFLS) is a State-level assessment initiative undertaken to measure the foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) competencies of young learners in the early grades,” SCERT Director Meghana Shetgaonkar told The Goan.
She said the initiative is aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) and the Centre’s PARAKH initiative, which seeks to ensure that every child attains foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of Grade III.
“Last year, under PARAKH, assessment was conducted only for Class III students. Hence, GFLS is being launched for Classes I and II,” she said.
The survey will function as a diagnostic assessment, helping SCERT identify competency-wise learning gaps at an early stage and enable teachers to plan timely interventions. Officials said the PARAKH conversational AI chatbot will be used to conduct the survey.
Meanwhile, internal assessment for Grades I and II will be restricted to the core curricular areas of R1 and R2 languages and Mathematics. No formal assessment will be conducted for other holistic learning areas, which will continue to be taught through experiential, activity-based and play-based approaches aimed at the overall development of children.
