NCF 2005
The National Curriculum Framework (NCF 2005) is one of
four National Curriculum Frameworks published in 1975, 1988, 2000 and 2005 by
the National Council of Educational Research and Training NCERT in India. The
document provides the framework for making syllabii, textbooks and teaching
practices within the school education programmes in India.
The NCF 2005 document draws its policy basis from
earlier government reports on education as Learning Without Burden and National
Policy of Education 1986-1992 and focus group discussion. The approach and
recommendations of NCF-2005 are for the entire educational system. A number of
its recommendations, for example, focus on rural schools. The syllabus and
textbooks based on it are being used by all the CBSE schools, but NCF-based
material is also being used in many State schools.
NCF 2005 has been translated into 22 languages and has
influenced the syllabii in 17 States. The NCERT gave a grant of Rs.10 lakh to
each State to promote NCF in the language of the State and to compare its
current syllabus with the syllabus proposed, so that a plan for future reforms
could be made. Several States have taken up this challenge. This exercise is
being carried out with the involvement of State Councils for Educational
Research and Training [SCERT] and District Institutes of Education and Training
[DIET].
The document is divided into 5 areas:
Perspective
It provides the historical backdrop and the rationale
for undertaking the revision of the National Curriculum Framework. It discusses
curricular reform efforts since Independence drawing from Gandhiji’s vision of
education as a means of raising the nation’s conscience towards injustice,
violence and inequality entrenched in the social order. It refers to the
recommendations of the National Commission on Secondary Education, 1952-53
(Mudaliar Commission) and the Education commission, 1964-66 (Kothari
Commission) and traces and development of Curriculum Framework, 1975 as also
the formulation of the National Curriculum Framework, 1988, following the
adoption of the National Policy on Education in 1986. It refers to the report
entitled Learning without Burden (1993), which highlighted the problems of
curriculum overload which made learning a source of stress for children during their
formative years. It refers to the National Curriculum Framework for School
Education introduced in 2000.
Learning and Knowledge
The Chapter focuses on the primacy of the learner.
Child centred pedagogy means giving primacy to children’s experiences, their
voices and their active participation. It discusses the nature of knowledge and
the need for adults to change their perceptions of the child as a passive
receiver of knowledge; rather the child can be an active participant in the
construction of knowledge by encouraging children to ask questions, relate what
they are learning in school to things happening outside, encouraging them to
answer form their own experiences and in their own words rather than by
memorizing. It recognizes the need for developing an enabling and
non-threatening environment, since an environment of fear, discipline and
stress is detrimental to learning. Healthy physical growth is the pre-condition
for development and this requires that they benefit from nutrition, physical exercise
and freedom from physical discomfort. Development of self identity through the
adolescent years, particularly in the case of girls who are constrained by
social conventions, is an important component. This chapter emphasizes that
gender, caste, class, religion and minority status or disability should not
constrain participation in the experiences provided in school. It pints out
that the diagnostic criteria of ‘earning disabilities’ is not well established.
It is, therefore, entirely possible that learning disabilities may arise from
inadequate and insufficient instruction.
Curriculum Areas, School Stages and Assessment
It recommends significant changes in Language, Maths,
Natural Science and Social Sciences with a view to reducing stress and making
education more relevant to the present day and future needs of children. In
Language, it makes a renewed attempt to implement the three-language formula
with emphasis on mother tongue as the medium of instruction. India is a
multi-lingual country and curriculum should promote multilingual proficiency in
every child, including proficiency in English, which will become possible only
if learning builds on a sound language pedagogy of the mother tongue. It
focuses on language as an integral part of every subject, since reading,
writing, listening and speech contribute to a child’s progress in all
curricular areas and therefore constitute the basic of learning.
School and Classroom Environment
The Chapter talks about the need for nurturing an
enabling environment by bringing about suitable changes in the school and
classroom environment. It revisits traditional notions of discipline and
discusses the need for providing space for parents and community. It also
discusses curriculum sites and learning resources, including texts and books,
libraries, education technology, tools and laboratories, etc. This chapter
addresses the need for plurality of material, as also the need for teacher
autonomy and professional independence.
Systemic Reforms
It covers issues of quality and the
need for academic planning for monitoring of quality. It reaffirms faith in
Panchayati Raj and suggests the strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions
through systematic activity mapping of functions appropriate at relevant levels
of panchayats, while simultaneously ensuring appropriate financial autonomy on
the basis of the funds-must-follow-functions principle. This chapter also looks
at issues of academic planning and leadership at school level to improve
quality.
