QUALITY IMPERATIVE

The International Commission on Education (Delors Commission) has recommended that each individual

learner must be equipped to seize learning opportunities

throughout life both to broaden her or his knowledge, skills ,attitudes, values and to adapt to a changing complex and independent world.

PILLARS OF LEARNING
Learning to know acknowledges that learners build their own knowledge daily, combining indigenous and external elements. Learning to do focuses on the practical application of what is learned.

Learning to live together addresses the critical skills for a life free from discrimination, where all have equal opportunity to develop themselves, their families and their communities. Learning to be emphasizes the skills needed for individuals to develop their full potential.

Curriculum
Curriculum is the lever for meeting the quality imperative Curriculum is Latin word for racing chariot suggesting the

notion of a course to be run which in turn leads to the idea of a

course of study. Syllabus does relate to this derivation but it is a piecemeal rather than an overall view of the total curriculum. Curriculum includes everything and anything that goes on in a school including teaching and learning. Curriculum may be seen as a framework within which teaching and learning takes place. Curriculum is a social construct designed to transmit characteristics of the society from one generation to another.

Continued

A society maintains and develops its identity over time through a continuous defining and redefining of its particular culture within the context of an ever-changing world.

The society must have some means of transmitting its unique characteristic from one generation to another.

Formal schooling supported by other agencies such as family

and organised religion are the obvious media for this transmission.

The content of the curriculum, to some extent the pedagogy employed in schools may be seen as a reflection of the society within which the institution is based.

Cultural universals
1. Socio-political system(this is closely related to 2&5) 2. Economic system(simple through to complex)

3. Communication system ( speech, signs, symbols, signaling )

4. Rationality system(rules and explanations) 5. Technology system(simple tools through to electronics) 6. Belief system(codes of behaviour, unitary and pluralistic) 7. Belief system(religious/secular related to 6&4) 8. Aesthetic system and the arts(simple to sophisticated) 9. Maturation system(child rearing practices-transmission to

adulthood)

Curricular planning
Curricular planning begins with a cultural analysis by answering the questions;

What kind of society already exists?

What ways is it developing?

How do its members appear to want it to develop?

What kind of values and principles will be involved in deciding on this development? What are the educational means of achieving the development?

Stages
Stages of curriculum The rhetorical curriculum(what is stated in policies and statements of aims) The planned curriculum(found in schemes of work, syllabuses) The delivered curriculum(how it is taught in classrooms or through other media) The received curriculum(what is ultimately in the minds and hearts of the students Received curriculum raises the questions; Can the learners demonstrate they have learned what the curriculum directed they should learn? What have these students learned?

Core elements
The core elements of primary curricula have been summarised as; One or more national languages(no longer classical) Mathematics (universal) Science introduced later than mathematics Social science(history/geography/civics) Aesthetic education(art and music)

Pedagogy
Pedagogy has its roots in Greek and comes from pais a child and gogos leader. The literal meaning would be to lead a child. Pedagogy is the science of the art of teaching. It includes all the interactions that take place between teacher ,learner and knowledge. Another summary of pedagogy is the strategies, structures and methods for facilitating learning.

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Modern pedagogy pursues an epistemic triangle with the systems theory as one of its angles the other two angles being constructivistic thinking and dialectical thinking.

Systems theory is holistic accepting that wholes are more than sum of parts, suggesting that quality should be cultivated for all the parameters of a system of education. Constructivism asks us to accept that reality does not simply exist out there in nature but is individually and socially constructed. Dialectical thinking demands that we accept a mutually definitional and interactive relationship between entities.

Parameters of a system of education

Parameters of a system of education are; Inputs(Learners,Teachers, Supervisors,community leaders,Budgets, Facilities,Materials,etc; Processes(relating to national policy,governance,mobilization,curriculum develioment, teaching-learning and testing) Outcomes(literacy,numeracy and life skills, social skills to participate as citizens and worker, and spiritual and social values) Contexts(cultural ,economic and ecological from local to global)

 Contexualization is another construct that is central to systems thinking. As there are sub-systems within any larger system in parallel, there are larger contexts subsuming layers of more specific contexts.

A Matrix Model is needed that on the one hand provides a core curriculum not the same but similar and equivalent, to be followed by the schools, and on the other hand differentiates by culture and economy of each well bounded cluster of communities that schools in the locality serve. The developed core curriculum will have to be reinvented for each location of the school or cluster of schools and for each level of the school grade

NCF observes
Competency-based child centered approach marked a change from previous initiative in pedagogy based in Mastery learning that specified a list of minimum levels of learning

The logical yet mechanical listing of sub-skills did not develop a pedagogical culture. Designing learning items and test items for these detailed lists and teaching to these learning item outcomes is impractical and pedagogically unsound. Competency based learning is an attempt to shift of teaching and related assessment from superficial textbook factual content.

Preparation of NCF 2005 was accomplished with the help of a National Steering Committee chaired by Professor Yash Pal and 21 National Focus Groups on the following themes: Aims of Education Work and Education Systemic Reforms for Curriculum Change Health and Physical Education Teaching of Indian Languages Problems of SC & ST Children Teaching of English Gender Issues in Education Teaching of Mathematics Educational Technology Teaching of Science Habitat and Learning Education of Groups with Special Needs Art , Music, Dance and Theatre Education for Peace Curriculum, Syllabus and Textbooks Teacher Education for Curriculum Renewal Examination Reforms Affirmation of the primacy of an active learner and a distinctive focus on the nature of knowledge gives NCF the potential to put the Indian system of education at par with international practices.

Main Features
STRENGTHENING OF A NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON Values enshrined in the constitution of india; Reduction of curriculam load Enshrining quality education For All (EFA): System changes; Common school system

GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Connecting knowledge to Life outside school; Ensuring that learning is shifted away from rote methods; Enriching the curriculum to provide for overall development of children rather than remain textbook centric; Making examinations more flexible and integrated with classroom life; and Nurturing an overriding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic polity of the country.

LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE

Correspondence between learner development and learning is intrinsic to curricular practices; Knowledge is different from information; Organising learning experiences for construction of knowledge and fostering creativity; Connecting knowledge across disciplinary boundaries for insightful construction of knowledge; Learning experience for developing critical perspectives on social issues; Plurality of textbooks and other material incorporating local knowledge mediated through Constitutional values and principles .

Curricular Areas
Implementation of three language formula with renewed efforts; The idea that home language/mother tongue as the best medium to build a foundation for education applies to tribal languages as well. Multi-lingual character of Indian society is a resource for promoting language proficiency;

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Teaching mathematics to focus on developing childs resources to think and reason,to visualise abstractions and to formulate and solve problems; Teaching of science to be recast to enable learners to acquire methods and processes that will nurture thinking processes, curiosity and creativity; Social sciences to be considered from disciplinary perspective while emphasising integrated approach in the treatment of significant themes;

 Enabling pedagogic practices are critical for developing thinking process, decision making and critical reflections on social issues; The arts and heritage crafts , and health and physical education to form critical components of school curriculum.

NATIONAL CONCERNS
Professional planning and significant expansion of early childhood care and education; Concerns and issues pertaining to environment, peace oriented values, and sensitivity towards gender parity and towards SC and ST, and minorities must inform all subjects and school experiences.

SYSTEMIC REFORM
Teaching is a professional activity; Availability of minimum infrastructure and material facilities for improved teacher performance; Locally planned, flexible school calendars and time tables; Reconceptualisation of textbooks, teachers handbooks, and other material based on new perspectives and access to interactive technologies;

 Strengthening the Panchayat Raj Institutions and encouraging community participation for enhancing quality and accountability; Teacher education programmes to be recast to reflect professionalism in the process of training and teaching; Productive work as pedgogic medium in school curriculam frompre-primary to senior secondary stages;

 Vocational education and training to be conceived and implemented in a mission mode; Examination reforms highlight: Shift from content based testing to problem solving and competency based assessment, Examination of shorter duration , and Flexible time limit;

 Parteherships between the school system and other civil society groups- NGOs and teacher organisation, etc for moving ahead.