The Ministry of Education on October 20, 2022, issue National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage.
The Foundational Stage envisions an integrated approach to Early Childhood Care and Education for children between ages 3-8.
It is based on cutting-edge research from across the world in multiple disciplines which include among other things better understanding of the fields of neurosciences, brain study, and cognitive sciences. Further, the accumulated insights from the practice of Early Childhood Care and Education, and the wisdom and knowledge from diverse Indian traditions are also important considerations.
A Curriculum Framework must support exactly that - it is a framework to help develop all the diverse Curricula in the country while enabling consonance and harmony across the country and providing a basis for quality and equity.
Objectives of this National Curriculum Framework are-
•The overarching objective of this NCF is to help in positively transforming the school education system of India as envisioned in NEP 2020, through corresponding positive changes in the curriculum including pedagogy.
•In particular, the NCF aims to help change practices in education and not just ideas; indeed, since the word ‘curriculum’ encapsulates the overall experiences that a student has in school, practices do not just refer to curricular content and pedagogy, but also include school environment and culture.
•It is this holistic overall transformation of the curriculum that will enable us to positively transform overall learning experiences for students.
•It aims to be understandable and relatable to, and usable by, practitioners of education, including Teachers and other educators, school leaders, and functionaries of the education system such as project officers, cluster and block resource persons, block education officers, teacher educators, examination boards, and curriculum syllabus textbook development teams.
•It is designed with the Teacher as the primary focus because the Teacher is at the heart of the practice of education. It is the Teacher’s torchbearer for the changes we seek. As such, it is the perspective of the Teacher that must be carried by all, including syllabus and content developers, textbook writers, administrators, and others.
•While it aims to articulate the underlying philosophy and principles, it does not simply leave it at the level of abstraction but also brings it to practice. To enable this, and to communicate ideas with greater clarity, this NCF contains different levels of detail and specificity at the level of practice, with clear real-life illustrations in a variety of contexts.
•The Teacher or curriculum developers are not bound by these illustrations, but it is envisaged that this level of detail will help to make this NCF graspable, relatable, and useable.
•It also aims to account for the reality of the current typical institution and Teacher, while being entirely in harmony with the imagination of the best-resourced institutions.
•It aims to be deeply rooted in the reality of our context, yet aspirational.
