The upcoming summer holiday promises to be a month of creativity and character-building for Haryana’s primary school students, who will spend a day with a soldier in the neighbourhood under “Ek Mulakaat Sainik Ke Saath” home task and gain insight into Operation Sindoor and India’s armed forces.
The revamped June 1 to June 30 vacation assignment rolled out on Thursday under NIPUN Haryana mission discards the dull and embraces the dynamic. At the core of this year’s summer homework is instilling among the tiny tots awareness about the pride of serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and paramilitary forces, sacrifices of soldiers and how to become an officer or soldier in the armed forces, said officials involved in drafting the summer break homework.
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Another facet of this back-to-basic and grass-root learning approach prepared for primary class students is that parents, and not teachers, will evaluate the homework.
This year, the students will also track rainfall, plant fruit seeds, take selfies with soldiers, explore life skills like digital literacy, and community engagement—all woven into foundational learning outcomes.
Students will also learn how to navigate google maps, identify currency apps, observe mosquito breeding grounds, play traditional games like antakshari and snakes and ladders, and regularly massage their grandparents’ feet, who in return will share family stories.
According to Pramod Kumar, state programme officer of NIPUN, the homework has been prepared to make education more joyful, inclusive, and deeply connected to everyday life while sparking curiosity and engaging kids in outdoor activities assisted by their elders.
“Parents will assess their child’s engagement… Their observations will be shared in the first parent teacher meeting (PTM) in July, making learning a shared family affair,” says Kumar, who heads the six-member team that has prepared the homework separately for each primary class.
The Class 5 students will have to deal with 41 activities, including full knowledge of the family tree, memorising names and phone numbers of a few family members and at least two relatives, postal address, names of prominent political personalities of their assembly segment, state and national leaders, and prominent players.
“We are not just assigning holiday work, we are trying to help students learn by living and to grow by doing,” Kumar said adding that all eyes will be on how students deal with “Ek Mulakaat Sainik Ke Saath” task.
Each student, with the help of parents, will meet either serving soldier or ex-servicemen in the neighbourhood. They will spend a day with that soldier, take selfies, learn about their experiences, and grasp the nature of their contributions. The student is expected to gather information on how to join armed forces as an officer or soldier, military training institutes, stories of bravery in military operation including Operation Sindoor. Based on the day-long interaction, the student will prepare a report and present it in the classroom.
“This task will develop patriotic feelings, students will learn about the sacrifice of soldiers, value of discipline, dedication, and challenging lifestyle of soldiers. Simultaneously this exercise will improve creative skills of students as they have to write a report, and draw a picture,” officials said.
Designed to promote foundational literacy and numeracy in meaningful and contextual ways, this holiday homework shifts focus from rote tasks to real-life, hands-on, and reflective learning experiences.
Civic and academic engagements are also part of the homework, including memorising Aadhaar and phone numbers of family members, and learning the names of national and local leaders. Reading assignments for Class 5 students include reviewing two library books, supported by short written and video reviews.
The compiled work and observations will be discussed during a structured parent teacher meeting in July 2025, turning holiday homework into a collective, participatory educational journey.