of pre-primary in a bigger school envi-
ronment, certain vital questions are
being raised:
Is it advisable that schools admit 3+
kids along with 18-year-old adults in
the same school campus? With so many
cases coming from different schools in
recent times of big guys bullying the
young kids, safety and security may
become a huge issue. Pedagogic wise
and academically also, there is no sci-
entific rationale in dividing the primary
classes into two parts of Foundational
and Latter Primary stage.
Shift in focus
The draft policy also said that there
will be play-based, activity-based and
discovery-based learning. And at the
preparatory stage, the aim will be to lay
the general groundwork across subjects
that include besides languages, science
and mathematics. Earlier there was
focus only on language and arithmetic
at the primary level with some basic
knowledge of environmental science
from class 3. With subject-wise com-
petencies being pushed into further
lower classes, the private players may
use this opportunity to their advan-
tage and precipitate their own version
of MLL (Maximise level of learning),
thus creating burden and pressure in
young minds. We are still talking about
subject-wise knowledge and watertight
compartment of subjects in the 21st
century at this level and not advocating
‘Theme based approach’.
Path breaking suggestion
The secondary stage will now comprise
four years of learning, and the tag of
“higher secondary” or “junior college”
will be eliminated. This seems to be path
breaking suggestion. The idea of elimi-
nating ‘senior secondary’ and ‘junior
college’ as the culmination of school-
ing process would require a major shift
in running these institutions. This will
pose a challenge to existing pedagogi-
cal processes and also need a paradigm
shift in the assessment process.Choice of elective subjects
The draft policy suggested a total of
8 semesters in these four years. Each
student will be taking 5 to 6 subjects
in each semester – there will be some
core compulsory subjects and some
electives. This means that the earlier
concept of 10 years of compulsory
school curriculum will now be done
away with and the student will have the
choice of elective subjects from Grade
9 itself. This may also mean that hence-
forth there will be nothing like science
stream, commerce stream, humanities,
and students will have the choice of
opting for any combination of subjects.
This will definitely impact the process
of learning in schools and will remove
the compulsions which are restricting
learning. It remains to be seen how uni-
versities and higher education institutes
respond to this challenge. It had been
tried earlier also to remove the ‘streams’
at +2 level but could not be materialised
because of resistance from universities.
The higher education people always
asked for certain subject combination
at +2 level in order to get admission in
undergraduate honours/pass courses.What role will examination
boards play?
It will be interesting also how the exam-
ination boards respond to this challenge
and at what stage and level, they are
going to take external assessments.
Whether the board will take one exter-
nal assessment at the end of fourth year
and issue certificate of performance or
will conduct multiple assessments for
promotion from one grade to another or
even semester wise remains to be seen.Modular board examinations
The report, however, suggested a system
of modular board examinations to test
critical thinking and other higher order
skills in each subject. I am reserving my
comment at this moment because of
not having sufficient clarity at present
in this matter.-XƅWHIƼRMXIP]RSXSPH[MRIMR
a new bottle
In short, the draft policy is definitely
not an old wine in new bottle. But while
making a radical suggestion for a new
curricular and pedagogical structure for
school education, the financial viability
should have been taken into considera-
tion. We have not yet achieved univer-
salisation of elementary education (up
to class 8) and if we think of extending
it to secondary education, we have to
extend it to Grade 12 which seems to be
a tall order now. Though the committee
suggested for additional fund allocation
for education sector but such things are
seen holistically and not in parts.
And lastly, if we look into child psy-
chology, allowing 3+ kids to learn along-
side 17+ young adults in the same school
campus seems not proper and justifi-
able. It may create many problems than
solving anything.8LIHVEJXTSPMG]MWHIƼRMXIP]RSXERSPH[MRIMRRI[
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