New Delhi: From suggestions on “improving dignity of teachers” to questions on whether children should start studying in their mother tongue from Class 1 onwards, the central government wants suggestions from citizens and other stakeholders on developing the new all-India school curriculum.
A Citizen’s Survey seeking suggestions from parents, teachers, citizens and other stakeholders has been initiated by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), which is working on the National Curriculum Framework (NCF)
for schools.
The survey is being conducted online for which suggestions will be invited till the end of September.
The NCF, which will provide the roadmap for designing school curriculum, is likely to be ready by February next year. Students will study the revamped curriculum with focus on “Indian roots” from the 2023-24 academic session.
Apart from holding internal discussions with focus groups consisting of education experts, the Ministry of Education has also started taking citizen’s opinion on the syllabus and initiated the survey.
One of the ten questions in the survey initiated in August include, ‘As a stakeholder-parent or guardian of children, how do you envision teachers’ role in the holistic development of children?’ The options given are — create a conducive environment for children’s learning in schools; help children to realise the importance of education in their life; help children develop holistically; taking care of their physical, mental, and social-emotional well-being; and encourage children to learn how to learn.
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Looking for holistic development
It also seeks suggestions on what subjects should be taught to children from Class 3 to 5 and 6 to 8. While options for students in Class 3 to 5 level include arts, crafts and health, social science, languages, environmental studies and maths and integrated team activities, some of the additional options for Class 6 to 8 include exposure to agriculture and other vocations locally available, knowledge of India, and coding.
The survey also wants to know what the society expects from school education. The options range from preparing students to earn their livelihood by developing entrepreneurial skills, preparing them to understand their role in nation building, to imbibing values for being responsible citizens, developing awareness about Indian cultural heritage or preparing them to understand social, political, and economic processes and related issues.
Respondents can also suggest what values — human values, constitutional values, moral values or values such as teamwork and commitment — do children need to imbibe in the course of school education.
‘For four years of Secondary Education as envisaged in the NEP 2020, what in your opinion should all students be required to study?’ asks another question, with vocational education, health, well-being and knowledge of India, basket of subjects for students to choose from, information and communication technology, basic mathematics, basic language(s) for communication and physical education, arts, crafts, agriculture as the options.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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