• The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the NIPUN Bharat Mission have commendably brought foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) to the forefront of India''s educational agenda. Recent data suggests an encouraging recovery in foundational learning outcomes, particularly in government schools, indicating that focused interventions can work at scale.
• However, beneath this veneer of progress lies a critical and widening disparity: a persistent numeracy gap. The data reveals that while India''s children are improving their reading skills, their ability to handle basic arithmetic is lagging significantly, a challenge that threatens to undermine the entire educational system and India''s demographic dividend.

The Stark Reality of the Divide

• The persistent difference between children’s literacy skills (reading) and numeracy skills (math skills like division, place value, operations) at the foundational level.
• ASER 2024: 48.7% of Class 5 students can read fluently, but only 30.7% can solve basic division is approx. 18% gap.

Trends in India’s Literacy–Numeracy Divide:

• ASER 2024 shows 48.7% of Class 5 students can read a Class 2 text, but only 30.7% can solve a basic division problem — an 18-percentage point gap.
• ASER 2024 finds more than 50% of Class 8 students cannot perform basic division, showing stagnation and cumulative learning gaps.
• Post-pandemic surveys (ASER 2022, 2023, 2024) confirm slower recovery in numeracy compared to literacy, especially among rural and low-income students.
• States like Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab show high reading proficiency but continued weaknesses in fractions, decimals, and multi-digit division.
• NCERT’s NAS (2021, 2023) reports national math proficiency below 45%, significantly lower than countries participating in TIMSS and PISA, reflecting systemic challenges.

Reasons for India Lagging in Numeracy:

• Hierarchical nature of Mathematics: Math builds layer by layer; when early concepts like place value or number sense are unclear, students cannot grasp later topics like decimals, fractions or division, causing learning gaps to widen rapidly.
• Syllabus-driven, pace-based teaching: Teachers often follow the textbook calendar rather than students’ learning levels, pushing the class ahead even when most learners haven’t mastered the basics — leading to cumulative deficits.
• Lack of structured remedial support: Most schools lack systematic catch-up programmes or differentiated instruction, so children who fall behind in early grades continue to lag throughout upper primary.
• Real-life disconnect in math learning: Studies (J-PAL) show children who score well in school tests struggle to apply math in practical settings and vice-versa, highlighting poor transfer of knowledge between classroom and real-life contexts.
• Teacher capacity and pedagogy gaps: Many teachers have limited exposure to activity-based, conceptual numeracy teaching, resulting in rote-led instruction that fails to build deep mathematical understanding.
• COVID-19 learning disruptions: School closures disproportionately affected rural and low-income students, sharply widening pre-existing foundational math gaps and delaying mastery of Class 1–5 competencies.

Impact of Poor Numeracy:

• High failure rates in Maths and Science: Weak foundational numeracy makes algebra, physics, geometry and problem-solving difficult, leading to significantly higher failure rates in these subjects in Class 10 board exams.
• Early adolescent dropout: As concepts become more abstract in Classes 6–9, children with foundational gaps cannot follow classroom teaching, pushing many to exit school before reaching the board exam stage.
• Reduced access to higher education (especially STEM): Students who cannot clear Maths in Class 10 or 12 lose eligibility for science streams, technical diplomas, engineering and competitive exams that require quantitative ability.
• Lower employability and financial literacy: Poor numeracy affects everyday skills such as budgeting, measurement, digital payments, and logical reasoning — limiting success in both formal employment and informal livelihoods.
• Long-term economic and productivity loss: A workforce with weak numeracy reduces national productivity, innovation capacity and readiness for a skill-based economy, threatening India’s demographic dividend.

Initiatives Taken:

• NIPUN Bharat Mission (2021): National programme for Foundational Literacy & Numeracy for Classes 1–3.
• Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL): Level-based instruction model adopted by several States.
• PARAKH Rashtirya Survekshan: Nationwide assessment to track foundational learning.

State-level programmes:

1. Karnataka: Kalika Chetarike
2. Uttar Pradesh: Mission Prerna
3. Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman & Diu: Extended FLN to upper primary, improving outcomes Activity-based learning kits, math manipulatives, digital FLN tools, teacher training modules.

Way Ahead:

• Extend FLN support up to Class 8: Because nearly half of middle-grade students still cannot do basic division, extending foundational interventions beyond Class 3 ensures continuity and prevents learning gaps from widening further in upper primary.
• Introduce FLN+ skills: Strengthening these higher-order numeracy skills is essential since they form the backbone of board-exam math and significantly influence future readiness in science, commerce, and vocational pathways.
• Shift to learning-level–based instruction: Teaching should match students’ actual competency levels—not rigid grade syllabi—so that slow learners receive the scaffolding needed to catch up instead of being left behind year after year.
• Strengthen remedial learning, peer learning, and math labs: Dedicated remedial periods, peer tutoring groups, and hands-on math labs can help rebuild foundational concepts through practice, concrete objects, and personalised support.
• Integrate real-life mathematical contexts: Embedding concepts like budgeting, measurement, discounts, and market arithmetic makes math relevant and enables children to transfer classroom learning to real-world situations effectively.
• Improve teacher training in conceptual and activity-based pedagogy: Teachers need continuous professional development to use manipulatives, visual tools, games, and child-centric methods that build conceptual understanding rather than rote procedural skills.

Conclusion:

• India stands at a critical juncture. The NIPUN Bharat mission has shown that progress is possible at scale. The next vital step is to channel that energy into a dedicated national push for numeracy, ensuring that every child not only learns to read, but also to reason with numbers. This is not just an academic priority but an economic and social imperative for an equitable and prosperous India.India’s numeracy gap threatens long-term learning, employability, and economic mobility. Strengthening FLN beyond early grades and adopting learner-centric teaching is essential. A coordinated national push on numeracy—parallel to literacy—is now crucial for inclusive educational and economic progress.