Page 48 - EducationWorld March 2023

Cover Story

mensely from a professional career
counseling department.
• Teachers are the backbone of our
education system and critical to
implementing the new NCFSE. I am
confident that the new framework
will empower teachers with the flex-
ibility and freedom to implement
the curriculum in the country’s 1.5
million schools.

Rashid Sharfuddin
Headmaster, SelaQui International School,
Dehradun
secure campus environment for all n alum of Delhi and Bath guidelines on the smooth inclusion
children by prescribing minimum (UK) universities, Rashid of vocational education into second-
safety standards and benchmarks. ASharfuddin is headmaster, ary and senior secondary education.
• Career guidance and counseling is SelaQui International School, Dehra- Against the backdrop of over 50 per-
ignored by most schools in India. I dun. It is ranked among India’s Top cent of children dropping out after
am looking forward to NCFSE 2023 10 co-ed boarding schools in EWISR secondary school, the integration of
to set this right by issuing guidelines 2022-23. vocational education in the formal
to schools across the spectrum to in- • I expect NCFSE 2023 to provide school system will surely boost their
troduce professional career counsel- robust and detailed guidelines to employability.
ing programmes for secondary and schools countrywide to improve • I hope the new NCFSE will pre-
senior secondary students to enable learning outcomes and equip chil- scribe a new flexible subjects choice
them to make informed higher edu- dren with 21st century skills and system at the secondary level to
cation and career choices. In EHIS, competencies. provide students flexibility to select
our students have benefited im- • I am also expecting it to contain subject divergent streams. Also it

Swoyan Satyendu
COO, ODM Educational Group, Bhubaneswar discovery-based teaching-learning
in all schools across the length and
woyan Satyendu is chief operat- breadth of India. All children coun-
ing officer of the Bhubaneswar- trywide have the fundamental right
Sbased ODM Educational Group, to high-quality, enriching primary-
which includes ODM Public School, secondary education.
ODM Kids World preschool chain, • Currently in some subjects, the pre-
ODM School of Advanced Learning (test scribed content is too extensive. I am
prep), among other education institu- hoping NCFSE 2023 will trim it down,
tions. especially content which requires
• Against the backdrop of a rising num- rote learning. The focus should be on
ber of Indian students aspiring to study encouraging conceptual understanding
abroad and the recent green signal given and learning.
to foreign universities to set up cam- • The new NCFSE should provide
puses in India, I am confident NCFSE 2023 will suggest guidelines to prepare India’s children for the 21st cen-
ways and means to moderinise school curriculums, tury VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous)
pedagogies and education practices in India. Our 260 world. I am expecting suggestions on how to introduce
million school-going children need to be equipped with new age contemporary subjects such as AI, entrepre-
the skills and competencies to compete and succeed not neurship, innovation etc, in all schools.
only nationally but internationally. • NEP 2020 has called for radical reform of the ex-
• NEP 2020 highlights the importance of child-friendly amination system. I hope that the NCFSE will provide
curriculums and pedagogies to enable children to learn guidelines to exam boards to move from testing rote
happily. I hope NCFSE 2023 will provide standardised learning to assessing children’s critical thinking and
guidelines for teachers to deliver joyful, practical and problem-solving skills.

50 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2023