Curriculum
designing has a special place among the diverse responsibilities envisaged
in the charter of NCERT. As an apex national agency of education reform, NCERT
is expected to review the school curriculum as a routine activity, ensuring
the highest standards of rigour and deliberative openness in the process. The NPE, 1986 and the PoA 1992 assign a special
role to NCERT in preparing and promoting a National Curriculum Framework.
The present exercise of reviewing the NCF was initiated following the
statement made by the Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development in the
Lok Sabha that NCERT should take up such a revision.
This was followed by a decision in the Executive Committee in its meeting
in July 2004 to revise the national Curriculum Framework Subsequent to this
meeting a letter from Education Secretary to the Director NCERT reiterated
the necessity to review the National Curriculum Framework for School Education
2000 in the light of Learning without Burden (1993).
Accordingly, NCERT set up the National Steering Committee under the
chairpersonship of Prof. Yashpal. The
National Steering Committee has 35 members, including scholars from different
discipline, principals and teachers, CBSE Chairman, representatives of well
known NGOs and members of the NCERT faculty.
The National Steering Committee was responsible for preparing the revised
National Curriculum Framework document. The
National Steering Committee had the benefit of the position papers prepared
by the 21 National Focus Groups.
The 21 National Focus Groups, also chaired by renowned scholars and
practitioners, covered the following major areas:
a)
Areas of Curricular Concern
Teaching of Sciences
Teaching Mathematics
Teaching of Indian Languages
Teaching of English
Teaching of Social Sciences
Learning and Habitat
Art, Dance, Theatre and Music
b)
Areas for systemic reform
Aims of Education
Systemic Reform for Curricular
Change
Curriculum, syllabus and Textbooks
Teacher education for Curriculum
Renewal
Examination reforms
Early childhood education
Work and education
Educational technology
Heritage crafts
Health and physical education
c)
National Concerns
Problems of SC/ST children
Gender issues in the curriculum
Education for groups with special
needs
Each National Focus Group has had
several consultations in which they have interacted with other scholars and
classroom practioners in different parts of the country.
In addition to the above NCERT has
had consultations with (a) Rural Teachers,
(b) Education Secretaries and Directors of NCERTs, (c) principals of Delhi-based
private schools and KVS Schools. Regional Seminars were also held at NCERTs
Regional Institutes of Education in Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhuvaneshwar, Mysore and
Shillong. Advertisements were placed
in 28 national and regional dailies to invite suggestions from parents and
other concerned members of the public. More than 1500 responses were received.
The draft National Curriculum Document
(NCF) has emerged from the wide ranging deliberations of the above groups.
The salient features of the revised
NCF are as follows:
Chapter 1: Perspective
It provides the historical backdrop
and the rationale for undertaking the revision of the National Curriculum
Framework. It discusses curricular reform efforts since Independence drawing
from Gandhiji’s vision of education as a means of raising the nation’s conscience
towards injustice, violence and inequality entrenched in the social order.
It refers to the recommendations of the National Commission on Secondary Education,
1952-53 (Mudaliar Commission) and the Education commission, 1964-66 (Kothari
Commission) and traces and development of Curriculum Framework, 1975 as also
the formulation of the National Curriculum
Framework, 1988, following the adoption of the National Policy on Education
in 1986. It refers to the report entitled Learning without Burden (1993),
which highlighted the problems of curriculum overload which made learning
a source of stress for children during their formative years. It refers to the National Curriculum Framework
for School Education introduced in 2000.
Chapter 1 reaffirms faith in the Constitutional vision of India as
a secular egalitarian and pluralistic society founded on values of social
justice and equality. It proposes four guiding principles for curriculum development,
namely (a) connecting knowledge to life outside the school, (b) ensuring that
learning shifts away from rote methods, 9c) enriching th curriculum so that
it goes beyond textbooks, (d) making examinations more flexible. It addresses
the challenge of quality in a system that seeks to reach every child the exclusive
triangle of equality, quality and quantity.
This chapter looks at the social context of education and the hierarchies
of caste, economic status and gender relations, cultural diversity as well
as uneven development that characterize Indian Society, and deeply influence
access to education and participation of children in schools. It cautions
against the pressures to commodify schools
and the application of market related concepts to schools and schools quality. Finally, it
discusses educational aims as deriving from the Guiding Principles. Education
should aim to build a commitment to democratic values of equality, justice,
freedom, concern for others’ well being, secularism, respect for human dignity
and rights. It should also aim at fostering independence of thought and action,
sensitivity to others’ well being and feelings, learning to learn and unlearn,
ability to work for developing a social temper and inculate aesthetic appreciation.
Chapter 2: Learning and
Knowledge
The Chapter focuses on the primacy of the learner. Child centred
pedagogy means giving primacy to children’s experiences, their voices and
their active participation. It discusses the nature of knowledge and the need
for adults to change their perceptions of the child as a passive receiver
of knowledge; rather the child can be an active participant in the construction
of knowledge by encouraging children to ask questions, relate what they are
learning in school to things happening outside, encouraging them to answer
form their own experiences and in their own words rather than by memorizing.
It recognizes the need for developing an enabling and non-threatening environment,
since an environment of fear, discipline and stress is detrimental to learning.
Healthy physical growth is the pre-condition for development and this requires
that they benefit from nutrition, physical exercise and freedom from physical
discomfort. Development of self identity through the adolescent years, particularly
in the case of girls who are constrained by social conventions, is an important
component. This chapter emphasizes that gender, caste, class, religion and
minority status or disability should not constrain participation in the experiences
provided in school. It pints out that the diagnostic criteria of ‘earning
disabilities’ is not well established. It is, therefore, entirely possible
that learning disabilities may arise from inadequate and insufficient instruction.
This chapter also highlights the value of interaction—with the environment,
nature, things, people—to enhance learning. Learning in school regretfully
continues to be teacher-dominated and the teacher is seen as transmitting
knowledge-knowledge of ten being confused with information. It points out that interaction with peers,
teachers and older and younger people can open up many rich learning possibilities.
Learning tasks and experiences, therefore, need to be designed to ensure that
children seek out knowledge from sites other than the textbooks—from their
own experiences, from experiences at home, community, from the library. Heritage
sites, therefore, assume great significance as sites of learning.
The approach to planning lessons must therefore move away
from the ‘Herbartian’ lesson plan to preparing plans, activities that challenge
children to think and try out what they are learning.
Chapter 3: Curricular Areas,
School Stages and Assessment
It recommends significant changes in Language, Maths, Natural
Science and Social Sciences with a view to reducing stress and making education
more relevant to the present day and future needs of children. In Language, it makes a renewed attempt to
implement the three-language formula with emphasis on mother tongue as the
medium of instruction. India is a multi-lingual country and curriculum should
promote multilingual proficiency in every child, including proficiency
in English, which will become possible only if learning builds on a sound
language pedagogy of the mother tongue. It focuses on language as an integral part
of every subject, since reading, writing, listening and speech contribute
to a child’s progress in all curricular areas and therefore constitute the
basic of learning.
This chapter also focuses on Mathematics and enhancing the child’s
ability to think and reason, visualize and handle abstractions and formulate
and solve problems. It recommends that the teaching of Science should be recast
to enable children to examine and analyze everybody experiences. Environment
Education should become part of every subject. In Social Sciences it recognizes
disciplinary markers with emphasis on integration of significant themes, such
as water. It also recommends a paradigm shift to study social sciences from
the perspective of marginalized groups. It recommends that gender justice
and sensitivity to tribal and dalit issues and minority sensibilities should
inform all sectors of social science. The document
draws attention to four other areas, namely Art education, Health and Physical
Education, Work and Education and Education for Peace. Work should be recognized
as a creator of new forms of knowledge and promote the values necessary for
democratic order. Work education must
link up with heritage crafts, especially in craft zones which need to be mapped,
so that this important source of cultural and economic wealth can be properly
harnessed through linkage with education.
Chapter 4 : School and Classroom
Environment
The Chapter talks about the need
for nurturing an enabling environment by bringing about suitable changes in
the school and classroom environment. It revisits traditional notions of discipline
and discusses the need for providing space for parents and community. It also
discusses curriculum sites and learning resources, including texts and books,
libraries, education technology, tools and laboratories, etc. This chapter addresses the need for plurality
of material, as also the need for teacher autonomy and professional
independence.
Chapter 5: Systemic Reforms
It covers issues of quality and the
need for academic planning for monitoring of quality. It reaffirms faith in
Panchayati Raj and suggests the strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions
through systematic activity mapping of functions appropriate at relevant levels
of panchayats, while simultaneously ensuring appropriate financial autonomy
on the basis of the funds-must-follow-functions principle. This chapter also
looks at issues of academic planning and leadership at school level to improve
quality.
Teacher education for curriculum renewal focuses on developing the
professional identity of the teacher as also in-service education and training
of teachers. Examination Reforms is
an important component of this chapter to reduce psychological pressure, particularly
on children in class X and XII. The
NCF, therefore, recommends changing the typology of questions so that reasoning
and creative abilities replace rote learning as the basis of evaluation. Finally,
it encourages innovation in ideas and practice through plurality of textbooks
and use of technology and recommends partnerships between the school system
and other civil society groups.
The revised National Curriculum Framework
is being placed before the Executive Committee and the General Council of
the NCERT today and it will be placed
before the CABE tomorrow for discussion
and approval. Suggestions derived
from deliberations will be presented to the National Steering Committee for
incorporation.
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