National Curriculum
Framework (NCF 2005)
INTRODUCTION
India is a free
nation with a rich variegated history, an extraordinarily complex cultural
diversity and a commitment to democratic values and well-being for all. Ever
since 1986 when the National Policy on Education was approved by Parliament,
efforts to redesign the curriculum have been focused on the creation of a
national system of education. Given the enormity and importance of the task of educating
the country’s children, it is necessary that, from time to time, we create
occasions to collectively sit back and ask ourselves, “What is it that we are doing in our engagement with this task? Is it
time for us to refresh what we provide to our children in the name of education?”
The National Curriculum Framework (NCF
2005) is one of the four National Curriculum Frameworks published in
1975, 1988, 2000 and 2005 by the National
Council of Educational Research and Training NCERT in India
NCF 2005 seeks
to provide a framework within which teachers and schools can choose and plan
experiences that they think children should have. In order to realise
educational objectives, the curriculum should be conceptualised as a structure
that articulates required experiences. Media and educational technologies are
significant, but teacher remains central .
Ø NCF deals at length the curriculum load on
children
Ø The children must be given a taste of
understanding, so that they can learn and construct their own knowledge.
Ø Make learning wholesome, creative and enjoyable.
Perspective:
The
NCF was framed considering the articulated ideas in the past such as
Ø
To shift learning from rote method.
Ø
Connecting knowledge to life outside
the school.
Ø
To integrate examination into classroom
learning and make it more flexible.
Ø
To enriching the curriculum so that
it goes beyond textbooks.
Ø
Nurturing an over-riding identity
informed by caring concerns within the democratic polity of the country.
NCF
focused on
Ø
Learning
without burden to make learning a joyful
experience and move away from textbooks to be a basis for examination and to remove stress from children. It recommended
major changes in the design of syllabus.
Ø
To develop a sense of self-reliance
and dignity of the individual which would for the basis of social relationship
and would develop a sense of nonviolence and oneness across the society.
Ø
To develop a child centered approach
and to promote universal enrollment and retention up to the age of 14.
Ø
To inculcate the feeling of oneness,
democracy and unity in the students the curriculum is enabled to strengthen our national identity and to
enable the new generation reevaluate.
Ø
J. P. Naik has described equality,
quality and quantity as the exclusive triangle for Indian education.
Ø
With respect to social context NCF
2005 has ensured that irrespective of caste, creed,
religion and sex all are provided with a standard curriculum.
o Revolves
around the question of curriculum load on children
n Information
often confused for knowledge.
n Tendency
to teach everything arises from our lack of faith in children’s creative
instincts.
n Demand
for inclusion of new topics/subjects results in disjointed syllabi;
encyclopaedic textbooks, and traumatic exams.
o Proposes
guiding principles for curriculum development
n Connecting
knowledge to life outside the school
n Ensuring
that learning shifts away from rote methods
n Enriching
curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks
n Making
examinations flexible
o Describes
the social context of education - hierarchies of caste, economic status, gender
relations that influence access and participation.
o Cautions
against pressures to commodify schools and application of market related
concepts to schools and school quality
o Discusses
the aims of education
n Building
commitment to democratic values of equality, justice, freedom, concern for
others’ well being, secularism and respect for human dignity and rights.
Learning and knowledge
Learning should
be an enjoyable act where children should feel that they are valued and their voices
are heard. The curriculum structure and school should be designed to make
school a satisfactory place for students to feel secure and valued.The
curriculum should focus on the holistic development of the students to enhance physical and
mental development in individuals and as well as with the peer interactions.
In order to bring
about the overall development of the students, adequate nutrition, physical exercise
and other psycho social needs are addressed hence participation in yoga and
sports in required. learning should be made enjoyable and should relate to real
life experiences learning should involve concepts and deeper
understanding.
o Focuses
on the child as an active learner
n Primacy
to children’s experiences, their voices and their participation
n Need
for adults to change their perception of children as passive receivers of
knowledge
n Children
can be active participants in the construction of knowledge
n The
school should recognize the innate ability of each child to construct his/her
own knowledge, and the fact that every child comes to school with a fund of
pre-knowledge.
o Therefore
children must be encouraged to ask questions, relate what they are learning in
schools to things happening outside and answer in their own words rather than
by memorizing.
o Recognizes
the need for developing an enabling and non-threatening environment
o Emphasizes
that gender, caste, class, religion and minority status should not constrain
participation in experiences provided in school
o Highlights
the value of interaction with:
n environment,
n peers,
n older
people to enhance learning;
o Learning
tasks must be designed to enable children to seek out knowledge from sites
other than textbooks.
o Need
therefore to move away from rigid lesson planning to planning and designing
activities that challenge children to think and try out what they are learning.
Curricular area, School
stages and assessment
o Recommends
significant changes in Language, Maths, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences
o Overall
view to reduce stress, make education more relevant, meaningful.
o Language:
o Makes
renewed attempt to implement 3-language formula
o Emphasis
on home language as medium of instruction
o Curriculum
should promote multi-lingual proficiency; can happen only if learning builds a
sound language pedagogy of the mother tongue.
o Focus
on language as an integral part of every subject: reading, writing, listening
and speaking contribute to child’s progress in all curricular areas and must be
the basis for curriculum planning.
o Mathematics
o Succeeding
in Maths should be seen as the right of every child
o A
majority of children have a sense of fear and failure of Maths: they give up
early.
o Curriculum
is disappointing to this non-participating majority, but also to talented
minority – it offers them no challenges.
o Textbooks
are replete with problems, exercises and methods of evaluation which are
repetitive and mechanical
o Focus
on child’s ability to think and reason
o Visualize
and handle abstractions
o Formulate
and solve problems
o Science
o Should
be recast to enable children to examine and analyze everyday experiences
o Environment
Education should become part of every subject – thru’ wide range of activities
involving outdoor project work
o Social
Sciences
o Recognizes
disciplinary markers so that content is not eroded, but also emphasizes
integration of themes, such as water water
o Recommends
paradigm shift to study social sciences from the perspective of marginalized
groups
o Gender
justice and sensitivity to issues of tribal and socially deprived groups, and
minority sensibilities must inform all sectors of social sciences.
o Draws
attention to four other areas:
o Art
Education
o Covers
four major spheres of music, dance, visual arts and theatre.
o Focus
on interactive approaches, not instruction – because goal is to promote
aesthetic awareness and enable children to express themselves in different
forms
o Health
and Physical Education
o Success
in school depends on nutrition and well planned physical activities.
n Education
for Peace
o As
a precondition for national development in view of growing tendency towards
intolerance and violence.
n Work
and Education
o Work
alone can create a social temper.
o Work
should be infused in all subjects from primary stage upwards
o Agencies
offering work opportunities outside the school should be formally
recognised.
Introduction of computers in schools is to
move from a predetermined set of outcomes and skill sets to one that enables
students to develop explanatory
reasoning and other higher-order skills.
o Enable students to access sources of
knowledge, interpret them, and create knowledge rather than be passive users.
o Promote flexible models of
curriculum transaction.
o Promote individual learning styles.
• Encourage use of flexible curriculum content, at least in primary education,
and flexible models of evaluation oriented education, pre vocational education
and generic education.
School and Classroom Environment
Physical environment has to be maintained favorable to
students in terms of infrastructure, adequate light and ventilation,student teacher ratio, hygiene and safe environment. Schools should also treat students with equality,justice
respect, dignity and
right of the students. Give equal opportunities for all students to participate
in all activities without any bias. Policy of inclusion has
to be part of the school where differently abled and children from marginalized
section get equal opportunities. The schools should also be well equipped with
libraries, laboratories and educational technology laboratories
o Critical
pre-requisites for improved performance
n Availability
of minimum infrastructure and material facilities
n Support
for planning a flexible daily schedule.
o Focus
on nurturing an enabling environment
o Revisits
traditional notions of discipline
o Discusses
need for providing space to parents and community
o Discusses
other learning sites and resources
n Texts
& books
n Libraries,
tools and laboratories
n Media
and ICT
o Addresses
the need for plurality of material and teacher autonomy/ professional
independence to use such material.
Systemic Reforms
The NCF has aimed at
bringing about reforms in the education system to bring about a curriculum that
is learner centric, has a flexible process, provide learner autonomy, teacher
plays a role of a facilitator, supports and encourages learning, involves
active participation of learners, develops multidisciplinary curriculum,
focuses on education, brings about multiple and divergent exposure,
multifarious, continuous appraisal in educational syste
o Covers
need for academic planning for monitoring quality
o Reaffirms
faith in local self government
n Proposes
systematic activity mapping of functions appropriate at relevant levels of
local self government
n Simultaneously
ensuring financial autonomy on the basis of the funds-must-follow-functions
principle.
o Teacher
education should focus on developing professional identity of the teacher
o Examination
reforms to reduce psychological stress, particularly on children in class X and
XII
n Recommends
changing the typology of questions so that reasoning and creative abilities
replace rote learning
Future Steps
o Development
of syllabi and textbooks based on the following considerations:
n Appropriateness
of topics and themes for relevant stages of children’s development
n Continuity
from one level to the next
n Pervasive
resonance of the values enshrined in the Constitution of India in the
organisation of knowledge in all subjects
n Inter-disciplinary
and thematic linkages between topics listed for different school subjects,
which fall under discrete disciplinary areas
n Linkages
between school knowledge in different subjects and children’s everyday
experiences
n Infusion
of environment related knowledge and concern in all subjects and at all levels
n Sensitivity
to gender, caste and class parity, peace, health and needs of children with
disabilities
n Integration
of work related attitudes and values in every subject and at all levels
n Need
to nurture aesthetic sensibility and values
o Linkage
between school and college syllabi; avoid overlapping
o Using
the potential of media and new information technology in all subjects
o Encouraging
flexibility and creativity in all areas of knowledge and its construction by
children
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