The Center expects state-level committees formed as part of the ongoing curriculum framework review to recommend ways to incorporate key elements of National Education Policy (NEP) into the school syllabus.
“How can knowledge of India develop national pride?” and “What should be the approach to sex education?” are some of the questions that the state-level committees, or focus groups, must answer.
These are some of the guidelines prepared by a subgroup of the National Steering Committee, which is leading the exercise to revise the National Curriculum Framework.
On January 27, Education Minister Anita Karwal shared the guidelines with states and UTs and urged that they be thoroughly studied.
The State and UT level focus groups will recommend the required changes on various topics in reports known as “position papers” under these guidelines. The guidelines state: “Each Position Paper should aim to illustrate how education in that particular area of learning would be transformed from the current realities of today to those envisioned in NEP 2020…. Global best practices in curriculum and pedagogy should be studied and adapted to the Indian context.”
Position papers will be developed in 25 areas – from knowledge of India to social sciences to mathematics and gender education, among others.
“How will Indian history and freedom struggle systems, heritage and culture be incorporated into social science education?” is one of the questions that the focus groups that prepare position papers on the social sciences must answer.
In the field of gender education, the guidelines encourage committees to identify specific learning needs of transgender children and find ways to raise awareness among teachers about the Transgender Persons Act, 2019.
With regard to language teaching, the groups will have to make proposals for the implementation of the trilingual formula as foreseen in NEP-2020. The guidelines state: “When should the second and third languages be entered? How can students gain flexibility in choosing their second and third languages? When is the best time/degree to introduce English as a subject…”
The committees reviewed the various topics and were tasked with suggesting ways to reduce the load on the curriculum and strengthen the focus on core areas. The need to integrate Indian knowledge systems is another constant theme, be it in the arts, sciences or mathematics.
“What would be the approach to make students bilingual in mathematics?” is another question posed to the committees that has its origins in NEP, which has suggested enabling students to think and speak on a subject in English as well as in their native or native language.
