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- 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 the National 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 philosophies.
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 that this framework is proposing,
Source:TH
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