Transcript NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK 2005 (NCF 2005) By Indu Goswami

NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK 2005
(NCF 2005)
By Indu Goswami
NCF 2005 - BACKGROUND
It is the outcome of a mountain of labor spread over ten
months of 21 National Focus Groups supervised by a
National Steering Committee and chaired by well-known
scientist & former chairman of University Grants
Commission Prof. Yash Pal. The steering committee
comprising 35 highly respected educationists —
professors, NGO leaders, school teachers, intellectuals
from across the country — edited, abridged and
incorporated the recommendations of the 21 focus
groups into the draft NCF 2005
NCF 2005 – AIMS OF EDUCATION
Based on our Constitution’s Vision of India:
Independence of thought and action
Learning to respond to new situations flexibly and creatively
Pre-disposition for participation in democratic processes &
social change
Empower All children to learn
A MOTHER’S RESPONSE
“Our syllabus gets more massive and moves beyond the teaching
capacity of the teachers so they rush through the contents with
tedious methodology. Students cannot meet the attention span
requirement in the classrooms and either fail at comprehension or
blank out into daydreaming. Newer topics of many different subjects
are covered even before the previous ones have been chewed over.
The burden of the syllabus is then passed on to the parents or
tuition classes. Little children burdened with loads of ‘education’ on
their shoulders trip from school to tuition classes, bypassing
childhood. A section of students study harder and harder to beat
each other to the top slot. Majority of the students are hounded by
parents and teachers to study harder and become stressed, some
requiring even clinical treatment.”
NCF 2005 – NATIONAL FOCUS GROUPS
Perspectives
Learning & Knowledge
Curricular Areas & Assessment
Systematic Reforms
PERSPECTIVES - GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
Connecting knowledge to the life outside of school
Learning shifts away from rote
Curriculum enrichment – going beyond the textbooks
Making exams more flexible by integrating them with classroom life
Nurturing a caring identity
PERSPECTIVES
The Child as Learner & What should be Learnt
NCF Perspectives
Commonly Held Views
All children are motivated -> Not true of large numbers of
& capable of learning
children
Children learn in a variety -> Children learn in limited way
of ways
Child as a ‘critical’ learner -> Child as passive imbibers
and as the constructor of
of textbook information &
of knowledge
providing set answers to all
questions
Developing capacity for
-> Developing generally only
abstract thinking, reflection skills necessary to helping
& work are most important
students pass or excel in
aspects of learning
examinations.
LEARNING & KNOWLEDGE
Local Knowledge is rich source of learning for All Children
Knowledge brought into school – home language
Integrating outside world and school – natural
environment
Integrating outside world and school – cultural
environment
LEARNING & KNOWLEDGE
Focuses on the child as an active learner
Recognizes need for developing a
environment
Highlights the value of interaction with:
enabling
 environment,
 peers,
 older people to enhance learning;
Learning tasks must be designed to enable children to
seek out knowledge from sites other than textbooks.
Need to move away from the rigid lesson planning to
planning and designing activities that challenge
children to think and try out what they are learning.
CURRICULUM AREAS & ASSESSMENTS
Traditional
Language
*Art Education
Mathematics
Science
*Health & Physical
*Education for Peace
Social Sciences *Habitat & Learning
Other Areas
CURRICULUM AREAS & ASSESSMENTS LANGUAGE
Three language formula reaffirmed – importance of home
language as a medium of instruction
Multi-Lingualism as resource – learning needs to build a
sound language pedagogy of mother tongue
Position of English and recommendations
Achieve basic English proficiency in 8 years of elementary
education within four years
CURRICULUM AREAS & ASSESSMENTS MATHEMATICS
• A majority of children have a sense of fear & failure of Math's: they tend to give
up early.
• Textbooks are replete with problems, exercises and methods of evaluation which
are repetitive and mechanical
 Focus on child’s ability to think and reason
 Visualize and handle abstractions
 Formulate and solve problems
CURRICULUM AREAS & ASSESSMENTS SCIENCE
Science should nurture curiosity & creativity particularly
in relationship to environment
Science teaching should be placed in the context of
children’s environment to help them to examine and
analyze their everyday
experiences
Awareness of environmental concerns by involving
outdoor project work. Environment education to be
made part of every subject
CURRICULUM AREAS & ASSESSMENTS –
SOCIAL
Equip
childrenSCIENCES
to think critically on social issues
Recognize disciplinary markers so that content is not eroded, but
also emphasizes integration of themes.
Recommends paradigm shift to study social sciences from the
perspective of marginalized groups
Gender justice and sensitivity to the issues of tribal and socially
deprived groups, and minority sensibilities must inform all
sectors of social sciences.
Significance of history – conception of past and civic identity
NCF 2005 – OTHER AREAS
Art Education:
 Covers four major spheres of music, dance, visual arts and theatre.
 Focus on interactive approaches, not instruction – because goal is to promote
aesthetic awareness and enable children to express themselves in different forms
Health & Physical Education:
 Success in school depends on nutrition and well planned physical activities
NCF 2005 – OTHER AREAS (CONTD.)
Education for Peace:
 As a precondition for national development in view of growing
tendency towards intolerance and violence.
Habitat and Learning:
 Work should be infused in all subjects from primary stage
upwards
 Agencies offering work opportunities outside the school should
be formally recognized.
NCF 2005 – SYSTEMATIC REFORMS
Covers need for academic planning for monitoring
quality
Reaffirms faith in local self government
Teacher education should focus on developing
professional identity of the teacher
Examination reforms to reduce the psychological
stress, particularly on children in Class X and XII
TEACHER EDUCATION FOR CURRICULUM RENEWAL
(MAJOR SHIFTS)
Teacher-centric
->
Learner-centric
Teacher direction and - > decisions Learner autonomy
Teacher guidance and - >
monitoring
Facilitates supports and
encourages learning
Learning passive
- > reception Active participation in
learning
Learning within four - > walls
Knowledge as “given” - > and fixed Learning in wider social
context
Knowledge evolves is
created
NCF 2005 – WAY FORWARD
Development of syllabi and textbooks based on following
considerations:
 Appropriateness of topics and themes for relevant stages of
children’s development
 Continuity from one level to the next
 Pervasive resonance of the values enshrined in the Constitution of
India in organization of knowledge in all subjects
 Inter-disciplinary and thematic linkages between topics listed for
different school subjects, which fall under discrete disciplinary areas
WAY FORWARD (CONTD.)
 Linkages between school knowledge in different subjects and
children’s everyday experiences
 Infusion of environment related knowledge and concern in all
subjects and at all levels
 Sensitivity to gender, caste and class parity, peace, health and needs
of children with disabilities
 Integration of work related attitudes and values in every subject and
at all levels
 Need to nurture aesthetic sensibility and values
THANK YOU