Beacon of excellence

Language Learning Foundation, a recipient of the 2024 Nexus of Good Award, has been championing multilingual education to enhance foundational literacy and numeracy, impacting millions across linguistically diverse Indian states

- ANIL SWARUP

In the glittering ceremony held on December 15, 2024 at PHD House, New Delhi, Language Learning Foundation (LLF) was one of the proud recipients of Nexus of Good Annual Awards, 2024

Language and Learning Foundation (LLF) is an organisation focused on improving the foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) of children in India since 2015. Collaborating with state and national governments, LLF aims to reduce India’s Learning Poverty from 56.1 per cent to 25 per cent by 2027. Partnering with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Ministry of Education and State Governments, LLF shapes policy, develops professional courses, and supports state-level Multilingual Education (MLE) initiatives. Since 2015, LLF programmes have impacted 16.2 million children and improved the classroom practices of 1.08 million teachers in government schools across 10 Indian states.

One of LLF’s core founding principles is that integrating children’s primary languages into early education is essential for enhancing learning outcomes. Language is central to early cognitive and social development, encompassing communication, reasoning, collaboration, reading, and writing. Using a familiar language fosters engagement, comprehension, confidence, and verbal reasoning, while also facilitating the acquisition of additional languages. LLF also emphasises the importance of a multilingual learning environment that balances familiar and less familiar languages to support bilingual or multilingual literacy and subject learning.