Page 40 - EducationWorld March 2023

Cover Story

NCF consultation process at all and Uttarakhand and Karnataka have slid
is drafting its own State Education from #10 to #14 and #5 to #13.
Policy (see https://www.education- Consequently, students from these
world.in/tamil-nadu-dormant-issue- states have become heavily dependent
backlash/). on private tutors to excel in national
Meanwhile, hitherto one of the competitive exams for entry into Cen-
country’s most educationally advanced tral universities, IITs and IIMs.
states, Tamil Nadu is experiencing a According to the latest Annual Sta-
steep fall in learning outcomes of pri- tus of Education Report (ASER) 2022,
mary school children. According to a the learning outcomes of children in
recent Institute for Competitiveness rural primaries, which suffered most
India study, which tested 86,000 class during the 82-weeks pandemic lock-
III children studying in 20 languages down of education institutions, have
across India, the state’s children fared regressed to 2012 levels. ASER 2022
worst in Tamil language proficiency says that 79.5 percent of class III chil-
with only 9 percent exceeding global dren cannot read class II texts and 74.1
proficiency standards (cf. 51 percent percent of class III children can’t solve
in Punjab). Singai: hands-on manual simple double-digit subtraction sums.
T HE OPPOSITION OF TAMIL swept General Election 2004, failed government at the Centre has to ad-
Eighteen years later, the ruling BJP
to sufficiently promote NCF 2005 or
vise state governments to accept the
Nadu and states ruled by
non-BJP parties is rooted
it suggests child-friendly, digitally-
unity, integration, level playing field
in suspicion that the prime explain its importance for national new carefully designed NCF because
purpose of NEP 2020 and the NCF etc to state governments or the public. enabled pedagogies to end laborious
is to ‘saffronise’ school education i.e, An NCERT study conducted in rote learning.
suffuse it with BJP/RSS propaganda 2013 — the last year of the UPA-II Dr. Chetan Singai (quoted ear-
in the humanities. Therefore, appre- government in office — found that lier) is optimistic that the comprehen-
hension is spreading within academia only 50 percent of the country’s states sive new NCF will revolutionise K-12
that the new NCF may suffer the im- had followed NCF 2005 resulting in education and bring joyful learning
plementation failure of its predecessor “variation in number of working days, into school classrooms countrywide.
NCF 2005. time allotted for teaching subjects like “NCF 2005 took a philosophical ap-
Written by a National Steering maths and science and evaluation of proach and focused on principles
Committee chaired by well-known learning levels”. rather than practice. The imminent
scientist Prof. Yash Pal (1926- With several state governments de- NCFSE will be a composite hands-on
2017) and then NCERT director Dr. vising their own imbalanced, rough- teachers manual. Proposed to be re-
Krishna Kumar, former profes- n-ready school curriculums hastily leased in two volumes — Principle to
sor of education at Delhi University, cobbled by inexpert committees, they Practice and Practice to Principle. —
NCF 2005 suggested four “guiding have experienced sharp decline in it will be more holistic, practical and
principles” to all state governments, learning outcomes during the past easier to implement,” says Singai.
schools and teachers, viz “connecting two decades. However, one wonders if unlike
knowledge to life outside the school; For instance, Maharashtra, which the UPA government of 2004-2013,
ensuring that learning is shifted away was ranked #3 in 2015-16 in the the BJP government at the Centre
from rote methods; enriching the cur- School Education Quality Index of will adequately market, promote and
riculum to provide for overall develop- NITI Aayog has slid to #6. Likewise, explain the new NCF to standardise
ment of children rather than remain school education countrywide, which
textbook centric, and making exami- The Centre has to advise state will enable mobility of labour, and
nations more flexible and integrated governments to accept the provide a strong stimulus for national
with classroom life”. integration.
The Achilles heel of NCF 2005 was new carefully designed NCF With NCFSE scheduled to release,
that it was insufficiently promoted and because it suggests child- over the “next few months”, Educa-
marketed. Despite the lucidly written tionWorld invited several eminent
framework document being exhaus- friendly, digitally-enabled school leaders to share their expecta-
tively formulated by 21 expert focus pedagogies to end laborious tion of NCFSE and the final new NCF
groups over a period of 12 months, the which is scheduled for completion by
Congress-led UPA government that rote learning end year.

42 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2023