A New Educational Policy is being formulated by the NCERT (National Council of Educational Research Training) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which is set to be released in the month of December, next year. From the second week of November 2019, which is next month, the process of reviewing the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) will begin. This review process will entail checking of content that is taught in schools as well as the teaching methods adopted by teachers in schools.
The National Curriculum Framework provides the basic structure for the teaching practices implemented in the educational programme of schools in our country. The syllabus and curriculum followed by the schools is based on the NCF. After the review process begins, focus groups will be formed to look into the scrutinizing of proposals for school education in our country. After the Educational Policy is complete, it will be submitted for the consultation of these focus groups. The NCERT has reportedly submitted the basic outline already.
Till now, four NCFs have been published by the NCERT in India- 1975, 1988, 2000 and the final one in 2005. The 2005 Framework proposed a shift in focus from teachers to students in order to ensure there is no burden of learning on students. It provides guidelines which teachers must take into account to better their practices and methods.
The Director of NCERT Mr. Hrushikesh Senapaty, in a recent interview, spoke about the New Educational Policy. According to him, the new policy will focus on promoting an integrated curriculum. This will include getting rid of material which is outdated and hence redundant. Efforts are being made to include ‘contemporary and emerging trends’ into the new framework which will be a revision of the 2005 NCF. He also confirmed the formation of focus groups by the 2nd week of November.
The New NCF is being formed 15 years after the NCF 2005 which is quite a long period of time. A lot of things have changed which must be made a part of the educational system which is supposed to be progressive.
Here are a few highlights of the new things that the new educational policy of 2020 will try to include-
- Inclusion of Adolescent Education Program.
- Inclusion of National Population Education Program.
- Furthering educational technology by encouraging computational thinking from age 6 onwards.
- Introduction of Vocational Education in the school curriculum.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development is working in unison with the NCERT on the new policy and on selecting and appointing a chairperson for the committee.