Uncertainties over the publishing of the final National Education Policy (NEP) report by the Centre have thrown a spanner in the works of the state government's plan to implement curriculum revision from the next academic year. The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development had published the new draft NEP in October last year with a slew of recommendations to overhaul the school and higher education system in the country.
However, many state governments had shown its disapproval on certain recommendations and sent letters to the Centre. As far as the Kerala government is concerned, General Education Minister C Raveendranath was keen on making a comprehensive curriculum revision from the academic year 2020-21. But it is unlikely to happen as the revision can be only be implemented based on the recommendations included in the final NEP report, sources said.
The union government has also set the deadline of completing the new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) in December 2020 and this will also be a hurdle for the state to revise the curriculum before this time period. Sources close to the General Education Department said the state government has temporarily kept the proposal of implementing curriculum revision from the next academic year on hold because of the uncertainties prevailing in the final NEP report.
Even though we have proposed to change the curriculum of schools from the next academic year, we have kept it on hold for a while due to delay from the Centre. However, the same curriculum will be continued in the coming academic year and the government may think of the revision from 2021-22 academic year, said a senior officer of the General Education Department.
According to him, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has been entrusted with implementing the curriculum revision. SCERT was earlier entrusted with overviewing the textbooks and make an entrepreneur-friendly environment in the classrooms as part of curriculum revision. NCF provides a framework for school syllabuses and preparing textbooks while providing guidelines on teaching practices.
The NCFs were released in 1975, 1988, 2000 and 2005. In the last NCF, the focus turned from teachers to students to ensure hassle-free learning. The curriculum was last revised during the tenure of the UDF government. Earlier, a panel to recommend changes in curriculum rejected some of the changes in the textbooks.
