The Hindu Business Line : NCERT bodies hold school curriculum review meetings

IN another step towards finalisation of the national curriculum framework review on school education, a joint meeting of the National Steering Committee of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) under the Chairmanship of Prof Yash Pal, and the National Focus Groups is being held at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) here.

At the three-day meeting, which began today, National Focus Groups would make presentation and deliberate on making the education more meaningful for the children in the country, NCERT said in a press release.

This would include peace education, the need to organise science and mathematics curricula and evaluation procedures to make these subjects non-threatening.

The meeting would also discuss subjects such as heritage crafts, art, dance, music and theatre as a part of curricula. The entire objective of this exercise is to make learning joyful and reduce the burden of the school education, the release said.

The National Policy on Education-1986 had suggested review of the national curriculum framework once every five years. As a part of this review, NCERT had formed a National Steering Committee and set up 21 National Focus Groups on various problem and subject areas of education in the schools.

The focus groups have so far met thrice to discuss the problems, issues and concerns on respective areas and also developed position papers, which would form basis of the curriculum review document.

According to the release, the draft position papers would be presented before the steering committee, which would review these in the view of overall perspective on education and prepare draft of the curriculum framework to be passed by the Central Advisory Board on Education .

The NCERT bodies would also deliberate on various issues pertaining to improving education scenario in the country. The challenge lies for the groups in offering the best education to the learners in the multi-cultural ethos and diverse socio-economic conditions of the country.

According to NCERT, the other areas of concern were in the context of education as fundamental right, the question relating to the teacher-learner ratio, children of disadvantaged groups and rural children from poverty-stricken backgrounds.

Consequent upon the task of contemplation and consensus on the core issues and policies, the final draft would be ready for submission to the Central Advisory Board on Education for approval by June/July.

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