Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 |
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Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: The draft National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 seeks to draw out creativity, eliminate airtight compartmentalisation of subjects, make education more relevant, and provide avenues for greater participation of panchayati raj institutions and civil society groups in making it a tool for social change. There is also a renewed attempt to implement the three-language formula; recognising the mother tongue, including tribal languages, as the best medium of instruction.
"A beginning"
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) drew up the draft after a nine-month exercise involving 21 National Focus Groups steered by a committee headed by the former University Grants Commission Chairman, Yashpal. It will be presented for clearance to the Central Advisory Board of Education next week. The draft, according to NCERT Director Krishna Kumar, is an "unfolding document, ... a beginning." Undertaken by the United Progressive Alliance Government, the exercise is tailored to conform to the broad parameters in the Preamble to the Constitution — a recurrent theme in speeches by Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh. The draft factors in the changed scenario following the constitutional amendment making elementary education a fundamental right. It states: "For teaching to serve as a means to strengthen our democratic way of life, it must respond to the presence of first generation school-goers whose retention is imperative owing to the Constitutional amendment which has made elementary education a fundamental right of every child." In a bid to address stress-related issues and correct the distortions, the NCF has identified four guiding principles for curriculum development: "Connecting knowledge to life outside school, ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods, enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks, and making examinations more flexible and integrating them with classroom life." The NCF recommends the "softening of subject boundaries" so that children get a taste of integrated knowledge, and plurality of textbooks and other learning material to incorporate local knowledge and traditional skills. In social sciences — a subject of contention during the last curriculum revision in 2000 — the draft proposes that it be studied from the perspective of marginalised groups.
Examination reform
Attention has been paid to examination reforms. The measures suggested include changing the typology of the question paper so that reasoning and creative abilities replace memorisation as the basis of evaluation, and the integration of examinations with classroom life by encouraging transparency and internal assessment.
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