Dharmendra Pradhan urges NCERT to ready NCF curriculum, syllabus, textbooks by next Saraswati Puja

NEW DELHI: Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for Foundational Stage 2022 and Balvatika today. Education minister also urged the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to prepare curriculum, syllabus, and textbooks by the next Sarawati Puja.

Addressing the NCF launch ceremony, Dharmendra Pradhan said, “National Curriculum Framework (NCF) is an important step taken to implement New Education Policy (NEP 2020) across schools in the country.”

The education minister also congratulated Kendriya Vidyalayas and the Uttarakhand government that piloted the implementation of NCF at 4,000 schools. “Will plan to implement the NCF in CBSE, state government schools in the coming year after due deliberation with the state governments,” he said.

He also said that the new curriculum focuses on cultural rootedness and aims to make students global leaders.

The NCF helps develop diverse curricula in the country, while enabling consonance and harmony and providing a basis for quality and equity.

Also read | National Credit Framework is next-generation global instrument: Dharmendra Pradhan

The objective of NCF is to “positively transform the school education system of India as envisioned in NEP 2020, through corresponding positive changes in the curriculum including pedagogy.”

Explaining the characteristics of NCF, Reet Chandra, director department of school education and literacy, ministry of education said, “The NCF is developed for teachers and practitioners in education, lays down a new vision for school education and provides details and guidelines for quality education at the foundation stage.”

The six major curricular goals are physical development, social-emotional and ethical development, cognitive development, language and literacy development, aesthetic and cultural development and positive learning habits.

The framework noted that while staffing of anganwadis is not complete, it is at high levels. "Data for private institutions is not available. The number of institutions offering relevant teacher education programmes is low and inadequate. 'Vidya pravesh' has been developed by the NCERT for students entering Class 1," it said.

It will be transacted over three months, with four hours a day devoted to familiarising children with school environment and to provide experiences for maintaining wellbeing, the NCF said. 'Vidya pravesh' (entry level education) will enable learning of ethical values and cultural diversity, and interaction with the physical, social and natural environment, it said.