Saturday, 05 Oct, 2024
By: Anshul Vipat
The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) is expected to be ready by early next year according to the ministry of education. The National Curriculum Framework is a document that is referred to design school textbooks in India. The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) is being developed as part of the government's new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The NEP 2020 is focused on the development of NCF in four areas of teacher education and adult education, school education and early childhood care and education (ECCE). The National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE), the National Curriculum Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCFECCE), the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE), and the National Curriculum Framework for Adult Education are constituents of the NCF (NCFAE). The NCF is considered as a major step towards decolonization of the Indian education system.
The National Education Policy was approved by the Union cabinet in July 2020. The Cabinet had also approved the renaming of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the Ministry of Education. Before this, the two education policies were implemented in 1968 and 1986. The NEP 2020 strives for universal education from preschool to secondary level by 2030, with a 100% Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in school education. It also aims at bringing back 2 crore out of school children in to the mainstream through an open schooling system. The present 10+2 system will be replaced with a new 5+3+3+4 curricular structure. It tends to make the 4 year integrated B.Ed degree a minimum qualification for teaching by 2030. One of the most important aspects of the policy is the creation of academic bank of credits through which the academic credits can be transferred. It also tends to increase the number of schools and higher education institutions across different states.
The chart below shows the total enrolment of students for the years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 for different levels of education- pre-primary, primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary.
Source: Ministry of Education
There was a decline in school enrollment at the pre primary level in 2021-21 as compared to the previous years. The enrollment of students dropped to 1.06 crore in 2020-21 as compared to 1.4 crore in 2019-20. Coming over to the primary level of education, there was no change in the number of enrollment of students in 2020-21 when compared with the previous year as the number stood same at 12.2 crore. An increase was reported in the enrollment of students at the upper primary level as the number went up from 6.5 crore in 2019-20 to 6.6 crore in 2020-21. Same was observed in the case of enrollment of students at secondary and higher secondary levels. 3.8 crore students were enrolled at secondary level in 2019-20 and this number went up to 3.9 crore in 2020-21. Coming over to the higher secondary level, 2.6 crore enrollments were reported in 2019-20 and 2.7 crore in 2020-21.
Source: Ministry of Education
India has come a long way in terms of the literacy rate. In 1951, just four years after India became an independent nation, the total literacy rate was just 18.3% which means that even the 1/4th population of India was not able to read and write. But over the years, the literacy rate in India has increased drastically and was reported at 74.4% in the year 2018. The male literacy rate has reached 82.4% in 2018 as compared to 27.2% in 1951 and the female literacy rate was reported to be at 65.8% in 2018 which was just 8.9% in 1951.
Though the number of enrollment of students and literacy rate in India has been increasing the years, there are different education indicators which need to be improved. The NEP 2020 and the NCF tend to improve such indicators and bring a paradigm change in the education system of India.
