Page 42 - EducationWorld March 2023

Cover Story

Lt. Gen. Arjun Ray ucation. In my opinion, a culture of the thinking and problem solving
CEO, Indus Trust reading, research and project-based skills of our children.
learning must start in secondary • I expect the new curriculum
school. The new national curriculum national framework to prepare
should encourage children to create India’s children for Industry 4.0 by
new knowledge and apply it. introducing digital literacy, compu-
Integrate thinking skills. The new tational thinking, financial literacy,
NCF should stimulate the creation communication, collaboration,
of content that encourages children higher order thinking, and creativity
to think and learn differently. It is skills. The NCFSE and NCF should
important for students to unlearn suggest ways and means to teach
rote learning. This can happen only social, emotional, ethical learning
if they are encouraged to question and global citizenship. Additionally,
the relevance of knowledge, cultural it should advise teachers to look out
biases and mental conditioning. for skill development internships
and vocational education opportuni-
Shishir Jaipuria ties for their pupils.
Chairman, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Group of • A notable feature of NEP 2020
Educational Institutions is the high importance accorded to
t. Gen. (Retd.) Arjun Ray, multidisciplinary education. I am
PVSM, VSM is chief execu- hishir Jaipuria is chairman of looking forward to NCFSE to make
Ltive and managing director of the Seth Anandram Jaipuria this happen by providing students
the Indus Trust (regstd.2001). Over SGroup of Educational Institu- flexibility to learn subjects of their
the past two decades the trust has tions which comprise 19 schools, interest. For instance, a student
promoted the IB (Geneva)-affiliated five preschools, two B-schools and a learning physics should also be free
Indus International Schools in Ben- teacher training academy with a total to study history or geography which
galuru, Hyderabad and Pune which of 20,000 students. Also chairman of will be given marks/credits.
host an aggregate 2,900 children FICCI ARISE (Alliance for Reimagin- • To raise Indian K-12 teaching-
from over 30 countries. ing School Education). learning standards to global norms,
Entrepreneurial skills. I hope the im- • NEP 2020 has mandated that the NCF should provide guidelines
minent NCFSE will highlight the “curriculum content” is reduced on how to introduce new pedagogies,
importance of developing children’s in all subjects to “enhance essen- subjects and new assessment meth-
entrepreneurial skills and compe- tial learning and critical thinking”. odologies into Indian education.
tencies, creativity, critical thinking, Therefore, I expect the new NCFSE Teachers should be provided broad
innovation and ability to reskill and to prune content load. This will ben- guidelines to integrate UN Sustain-
upskill. Primary-secondary educa- efit schools across the country. They able Development Goals (SDGs) into
tion needs to be redesigned to re- can use the time saved to encourage their curriculums.
build the entrepreneurial traditions discussion, debate, experimentation, • Beyond knowledge and skills,
of India. tinkering. This will surely improve NCFSE should also suggest how
Exams and assessments. School exams to integrate value-
countrywide should test students’ based education into
ability to apply, evaluate, analyse, class curriculums to
and infer, instead of memorisation develop sensitive,
skills. Testing and assessment should empathic, ethical and
be continuous. responsible citizens.
Inclusion and diversity. With rapid glo- Moreover, as pre-
balisation, cultural boundaries have scribed in NEP 2020,
blurred, and schools have students the new framework
from diverse backgrounds and cul- should recommend
tures. The new national curriculum ways and means to
should include content which will integrate Indian heri-
teach children to appreciate our rich tage, culture, plural-
and diverse cultures. ism and knowledge
Research. NEP 2020 accords high systems into school
importance to research in higher ed- curriculums.

44 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2023