Curriculum reforms in school education in India have been based on the prevailing research on learners and learning as well as the National Policy in Education. Implementation of these reforms, as envisaged in the Curriculum Frameworks developed in 1978, 1988, 2000 and 2005, have been documented in this book. The study was carried out by the Department of Teacher Education, NIE, NCERT. It provides a macro view of the implementation of the curricula across the country regarding different aspects like curriculum transaction strategies, structure, instructional days, instructional hours and student assessment at Primary, Upper Primary and Secondary stages.
We expect this book to be useful for the policy makers and curriculum specialists as well as support faculty, at the state, district and block levels. In addition, it will be useful for researchers to undertake intensive studies in curriculum practices in the schools on the problems emanating from this macro study. Such researches will be useful in the formulation of curriculum policies and their implementation, both at national and state levels.
I hope this study, undertaken efficiently by Professor S. K. Yadav, Department of Teacher Education, will professionally benefit the education sector. We look forward to constructive comments on it.
Changes occur regularly in the social, political and economic order and it becomes a challenge before curriculum framers and developers to assimilate and absorb new changes to meet the aspirations of the people. It means curriculum development is not a one shot affair but a continuous and on-going process. The NCERT took up the responsibility of developing the school curriculum in 1975. The document entitled "The Curriculum for the Ten Year School-A Framework" recommended stage wise objectives of general education, subject wise instructional objectives and content, methodology of traching, instructional aids and material evaluation and feedback and implications for implementation. In 1977, Ishwar Bhai Committee reviewed the Ten Year School Curriculum. In 1988, National Curriculum for Elementary and Secondary Education A Framework, was revised based on the National Policy on Education (NPE) 1986. In 2000, the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) was brought out on the basis of new emerging issues and concerns. The document includes context and concerns, organisation of curriculum at elementary, secondary and higher secondary stages, evaluation and management of the system. It was again reviewed during 2005 to respond to the new developments like curriculum load, tyranny of examination, commitment to universalination of elementary education etc. NCERT developed NCF with the help of National Steering Committee and 21 Focus Groups. These Focus Groups developed the position papers. The NCF 2005 was approved by Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) in September 2005. As mentioned above, curriculum development is a cyclic process, it requires regular feedback through different sources including research studies for its revision and updating from time to time. This study is an attempt in this direction. It focuses on the status of the ten-year school curriculum in the country. The data was analysed separately for primary, upper primary and secondary stages, and presented in three chapters.
The book entitled "School Curriculum. Structure and Practices" comprises of few chapters, the Chapter-1 Introduction consists of need, importance and objective, sample of the study, tool used, and procedure for data collection and analysis of the data. The results and findings are discussed separately for primary, upper primary and secondary stages in Chapter II, III and IV in terms of structure of different school stages, agency for curriculum construction, nomenclature of different subjects, time allotted for annual examination, mechanism for evaluation of curriculum and suggestions for improving school curriculum. The last Chapter V presents the important findings, conclusion and implication for further action.
I am grateful to Professor Parvin Sinclair, Director, NCERT and Professor BK. Tripathi, Joint Director, NCERT for providing guidance and suggestions for completing this study. I also gratefully acknowledge the extended time and valuable.
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