Page 48 - EW August 2023

Cover Story

libraries and laboratories. Moreover,
they are subject to arbitrary transfer
and extortion demands of education
ministry officials.
Little wonder that 25 percent of
government school teachers are ab-
sent every day and multi-grade teach-
ing is the norm. Therefore, chances are
that the detailed NCF four-volumes
being formulated by the 13-member
Steering Committee may flounder at
the last mile implementation stage
amounting to love’s labour lost.
I F THERE ARE LAST MILE

implementation hurdles to
NCFSE as Menon and other
independent monitors of In- Dr. Popat-Vats: better educators guide Menon: implementation scepticism
dian school education apprehend, it have attained the ILOs sign-posted in welcomed NEP 2020. Unlikely to rest
will be a tragedy. Because the most NCFSE 2023. on their laurels despite the setback to
commendable features of NCF-FS “Within the Indian school system, chairman Dr. Kasturirangan’s health,
and NCFSE 2023 are the step-by-step the role of principals has been mainly the committee is working at fast pace to
curriculum achievement goals and administrative and restricted to en- produce drafts of NCF for teacher edu-
illustrative learning outcomes of stu- suring that overall scores in school- cation and NCF for adult education.
dents at every stage — foundational, leaving board exams are respectable. A common factor for the successful
preparatory, middle and secondary. Now with NCFSE setting detailed CGs implementation of NCF-FS, NCFSE
Moreover, NCFSE provides revised and prescribing ILOs for every stage in and the imminent NCFTE and NC-
rationales and definitions for lan- the teaching-learning process, princi- FAE is larger budgetary allocations.
guage learning, maths, science, social pals will be able to separate the wheat Therefore, government expenditure
sciences and presents curricular goals from the chaff among their teachers (Centre plus states) for public edu-
to be attained at various stages in ad- through formal or informal testing cation must forthwith be raised to 6
dition to ways and means to periodi- of students. In government schools percent of GDP. NEP 2020 prescribes
cally assess learning outcomes. where principals rise to the top on the that the Centre and states allocate 10
In short, NCF-FS and NCFSE are basis of seniority and/or political con- percent of annual expenditure for edu-
comprehensive teachers’ manuals that nections, this option may not be ex- cation within ten years. Pending that,
can enable realisation of the goals set ercised. However in private schools, annual outlay for education must rise
out by NEP 2020. The large number of teacher performance can be continu- to 6 percent of GDP from next year.
CGs (curricular goals) and ILOs (illus- ously monitored. If NCFSE is properly A calculus to attain this objective has
trative learning outcomes) set out for utilised, principals can become more repeatedly been provided by Educa-
eight core subjects and classes XI and involved with curriculum implemen- tionWorld (see March 2023).
XII, explain the prolixity of NCF-FS tation. This is a beneficial develop- The lay public, educationists and
and NCFSE 2023 (360 and 684 pages) ment,” says an experienced education the educators’ community in particu-
cf. the single volume NCF 2005 (159 consultant, who preferred to remain lar need to respond with constructive
pages). anonymous. suggestions and recommendations
Moreover while NCFSE is certain Although forbidding ab initio, (as we do in the pages following) to
to prove very valuable to teacher edu- NCFSE (and NCF-FS) are in effect ensure that post-independence India’s
cators including DIETs, RIEs and to excellent teacher manuals which if fol- obsolete K-12 education system which
colleges and universities which offer lowed in letter and spirit can achieve has thus far failed to provide a strong
the B.Ed programme, it is also certain the goals of real learning by compre- foundation for tertiary and postgrad
to prove valuable to school principals hension as recommended by NEP learning, is brought on a par with
and headmasters who can not only ar- 2020, rather than rote learning, the the best worldwide. This is a neces-
range for teacher development work- bane of India’s K-12 education system. sary precondition of harvesting the
shops but also keep track of students’ The 13-strong NCF Steering Commit- country’s demographic dividend and
learning attainments by formally tee has done a good job of providing transforming 21st century India into
or informally testing whether they a roadmap to implement the widely a middle class nation.

48 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2023