Federation education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday launched the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for the foundation phase for children in the age group of three to eight years. This is the first time that the NCF has been prepared for the foundation stage and children of the age of three years will be brought into the formal schooling system as proposed in the National Education Policy-2020 (NEP).
In addition to the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) curriculum, the first of the four NCFs, Pradhan also introduced balvatikas (pre-primary classes) in Kendriya Vidyalayas. ECCE under the Anganwadi system, hitherto mainly focused on the nutrition and health of a child, whereas in private space, the play school system was unregulated.
Pradhan said that the most important aspect of the NEP has been the development of a national curriculum for school education as it is futuristic. “Curriculizing the curriculum for the age group of three to eight years has been the most important as well as challenging as experts and scientists have proved that 85 per cent of brain development occurs at the age of seven or eight. Hence, the foundation The most important aspect of NCF is to prepare the syllabus for the K phase,” he said.
“I am optimistic that NCERT will bring out the syllabus and textbooks and other necessary methodologies by the next Basant Panchami. I am also hopeful that NCERT will share these with SCERTs on priority so that experts from the states can be consulted and based on these recommendations, curriculum preparation and development of textbooks can be started.
While NCERT is the National Council for Educational Research and Training, SCERTs are the State Council for Educational Research and Training.
The NCF-2022 has four sections – National Curriculum Framework for School Education, National Curriculum Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education, National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education and National Curriculum Framework for Adult Education.
Research from around the world on education, neuroscience and economics clearly demonstrates that ensuring free, accessible, high-quality early childhood care and education is perhaps the best investment any country can make for its future. As per NCF for Foundation. Forum.
It states that “brain development is most rapid in the first eight years of a child’s life, indicating the critical importance of cognitive and socio-emotional stimulation in the early years.”
Focusing on cognitive development and socio-emotional stimulation in a child’s early years, the new framework enlists the ‘panchakosha’ concept for the education of children between the ages of three and eight.
The concept has five parts: physical development (physical development), development of life energy (pranic development), emotional and mental development (mental development), intellectual development (intellectual development) and spiritual development (conscious development). “The Panchakosha is an ancient explanation of the importance of the body-mind complex in human experience and understanding. This non-bilateral approach to human development gives a clear path and direction towards a more holistic education,” according to the NCF.
The outline states that the staffing of Anganwadis is not complete, but it is at a high level. “Data is not available for private institutions. The number of institutions offering relevant teacher education programs is few and inadequate. ‘Vidya Pravesh’ has been developed by NCERT for the students appearing in class 1.
The NCF said this would be completed in three months, with four hours a day dedicated to introducing children to the school environment and providing experiences to maintain wellbeing. ‘Vidya Pravesh’ (entry level education) will enable learning of moral values and cultural diversity and interaction with the physical, social and natural environment, Union Ministry of Education has also recommended the inclusion of pre-primary classes in the formal schooling system. has taken the initiative. Kindergarten in Kendriya Vidyalayas, the pedagogy for which is based on the recommendations of NCF.
“For the first time in 50 Kendriya Vidyalayas, on pilot-mode, we are starting this NCF based play school in an institutionalized form with targeted learning outcome on pedagogy. Here I would like to congratulate the Government of Uttarakhand, which has already included pre-primary in the formal schooling system. NCERT and the Ministry of Education had initiated the process of developing four NCFs in 2021 in the areas of early childhood care and education, school education, teacher education and adult education, as a part of the implementation of NEP-2020.
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