Pre-draft version of national curriculum framework for school education

General Studies Paper 2

Context: The Ministry of Education released a pre-draft version of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education.

About Framework 

• The National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF) is developed based on the vision of theNational Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and to enable its implementation.
• It addresses education for the age group 3 to 18 years, across the entire range of diverse institutions in India.
  • This is across the four Stages in the 5+3+3+4 Curricular and Pedagogical restructuring of School Education as envisioned in NEP 2020.
• The National Steering Committee under the chairmanship of K. Kasturirangan was set up by the Ministry to undertake and develop NCFs.

Key Highlights

• It leans towards making students acquainted with true sources of knowledge, which have been a philosophical preoccupation of ancient Indians.
• These sources focus on six  pramanas:
  • Pratyaksa, interpreted as perception through five senses;
  • Anumana, which uses inferences to come to new conclusions
  • Upamana, which is knowing through analogy and comparison;
  • Arthapatti, which involves knowing through circumstantial implication,
  • Anupalabdhi, which includes perception of non-existence, and
  • Sabda, which the document explains is “something an individual can only directly know a fraction of all reality through direct experience and inference but must rely on other experts was acknowledged thousands of years ago”.
• It recommends developing moral values for the child through a balanced diet, traditional games, yoga asanas, as well as a wide variety of stories, songs, lullabies, poems, and prayers to develop a love for cultural context.
• It focuses on the importance of questioning by giving examples of the Upanishads, and includes examples from Katha Upanishad.
  • It terms debates between Adisankara and Mandana Misra as legendary.
• It also stresses on identifying and explaining important phases of the Indian national movement against British rule, with special reference to Gandhian and other subaltern movements.
• It also recommends teaching concepts of Buddhism, Jainism and Vedic and Confucian
  

Objectives of this NCF

• It aims to help in positively transforming the school education system of India as envisioned in NEP 2020, through corresponding positive changes in the curriculum including pedagogy.
• It aims to help change practices in education and not just ideas
• It is this holistic overall transformation of the curriculum that will enable us to positively transform overall learning experiences for students.

Current Status 

• This is a pre-draft of the NCF-SE which still requires several rounds of discussion within the National Steering Committee (NSC).
• Feedback from diverse stakeholders will further help NSC to look critically into different modalities and approaches.

It suggested 3 approaches to assessments: Assessment –

• ‘Of learning’ (measurement of achievement of student learning),
• ‘for learning’ (evidence of student learning gathered by the teacher that provides inputs to guide the teaching-learning processes) and
• ‘as learning’ (when assessments are introduced as non-threatening tools for self-reflection and introspection).