Page 34 - EducationWorld December 2022

Expert Comment

NCFFS 2022: ghost of early

literacy

KRISHNA KUMAR

ARLIER THIS YEAR WE LOST INDIA’S stal- If angandwadis are attached to
wart campaigner for sane policies that affect little
children’s education. If Mina Swaminathan were primary schools the new focus will be
Earound and active, I wouldn’t have ventured to on literacy. The pipe dream of child-
critique the recently presented (October 20) National Cur-
riculum Framework for Foundational Stage (NCFFS) 2022. centred education in India’s villages and
NCFFS aims to integrate anganwadis with early primary urban slums can be expected to recede
classes. The stated purpose of this restructuring is to fo- further
cus on foundational literacy. It marks a remarkable act of
walking backwards. This is not, of course, the first time the
system is doing so. Our systemic history is full of examples
that an English teacher might use to explain usage of ‘one demic, is difficult to imagine.
step forward, two steps backwards’. Prima facie, its emphasis on the acquisition of depend-
We know now that the new NCF will be a huge docu- able literacy at an early stage seems a good idea. If we look
ment, divided stage-wise. What has just been published has back, the ghost of literacy has always haunted the estab-
354 pages and it covers only the ‘foundation stage’ — early lishment. For decades progressive educators have argued
childhood and primary school years. As the policy docu- that literacy cannot be isolated from intellectual and aes-
ment clarifies, the government wants anganwadis to be of- thetic nourishment during childhood. Numerous studies
ficially tied to early primary classes. have demonstrated that India’s kindergartens and primary
If this happens, it will constitute a major structural schools are so obsessed with literacy that they underplay
change. Anganwadis were the institutional expression of everything else. And within literacy, our institutions put
the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) pro- mechanics above meaning. These are not just stumbling
gramme introduced in 1975. The programme envisioned blocks: they are characteristic weaknesses of the system.
feeding millions of India’s infants deprived of basic nutri- downside of the stage-wise approach to curriculum
tion and care. Their psychological development at this early Aplanning is that it allows us to view interaction between
stage of life was to be addressed by a routine offering play stages. The case of primary and upper primary education is
and movement, colour and music. These were ambitious typical. The hard-won shift towards the ‘elementary’ stage
goals, and they have remained elusive in most states of the promised a change, but the new education policy document
Indian Union. and NCFFS indicate that the movement towards elemen-
But even a limited ICDS must be recognised as a mile- tary education is unlikely to be supported. Other stages of
stone. It was the great achievement of women scholars education are similarly perceived in a fragmented way. If
including Mina Swaminathan who pushed the State to ac- each stage of school education is going to be covered in the
knowledge its duty towards children of the poor. Angan- style of this document, we can expect over one thousand
wadis are run by women. In the northern states, they are pages of unhelpful prolixity.
poorly paid and their struggle to be treated with dignity A curriculum framework is supposed to be an enabling
hasn’t made much headway. Now, if anganwadis are at- document. If it is to be useful, the intended readership must
tached to primary schools, one can hardly imagine things be taken into account. If teachers are part of that reader-
getting better for infants and their care-givers, especially ship, their daily struggles and achievements under highly
when the new focus will be on literacy. The pipedream of diverse conditions should find reflection. Alas, teachers are
informal child-centred education in India’s villages and ur- far too remote from the concerns of people who prepare
ban slums can be expected to recede further. policy documents. Our system considers prescribed text-
A document that doesn’t acknowledge state-level reali- books as a sufficient resource for the teacher.
ties and variation in efforts to negotiate financial limita- Moreover we hear that teachers will be monitored by
tions, cannot be expected to serve as a guide to action. But technology. Their autonomy is of zero value to the authori-
even as an academic document, the sweep and verbosity ties and school managers, fond of uniformity. They believe
of NCFFS are amazing. It contains just about everything that uniformity is the key to quality. Such belief offers little
that has ever been said or discussed in the context of child scope for confidence in the teacher. Every effort is made
development, language learning and acquisition of literacy. to keep teachers under a tight grip every hour of the day.
In places it reads like a voluminous assembly of disserta- A teacher who is so regimented can hardly nourish an au-
tions. Ancient Indian philosophy also finds a place. How it tonomous mind in the child, no matter what the subject.
will help the primary education system to deal with harsh (Dr. Krishna Kumar is a former director of NCERT and NCTE and author of
realities that have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pan- Smaller Citizens (2021))

34 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2022