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Introduction

National Curriculum Framework 2005 is an important document to design and structure Indian education system. The document outlined the vision, shared goals and fundamental premises of the framers and looked at the emergence of NCF-2005 through a  process of social deliberation  (Forward, NCERT, 2005). NCF-2005 has been evolved from 21 focus groups' deliberations on 21 academic disciplines. However, all the ideas from all the 21 position papers has not been incorporated as they are proposed in respective position papers (Sadgopal, XXXX).

Lacunae in existing education system

NCF-2005 identified persisting lacunae in existing education system which deters the nation to meet the Constitutional obligations:

the school system is characterised by an inflexibility that makes it resistant to change; 
learning has become an isolated activity, which does not encourage children to link knowledge with their lives in any organic or vital way; 
schools promote a regime of thought that discourages creative thinking and insights; 
what is presented and transmitted in the name of learning in schools bypasses vital dimensions of the human capacity to create new knowledge; 
the  future  of the child has taken centre stage to the near exclusion of the child s  present , which is detrimental to the well-being of the child as well as the society and the nation. (NCERT, 2005; p. 2)

The health of a democratic society is determined by how the members are living in symbiosis, recognise and respect each others right. Unfortunately, in a competitive economy individual aspirations come into conflict with harmonious collective growth. Then education becomes a tool to achieve individual goal in order to secure in the economic order. The situation puts stress on children and creates the education itself as a competitive field. In such a situation education fails to  promote values that foster peace, humaneness, and tolerance  in society (NCERT, 2005; p. 2).

Addressing the lacunae in existing education

To make any meaningful shift towards addressing the persisting lacunae cited by NCF   2005 in Indian education system, requires a fundamental transformation in our views about learning and learner. We tend to perceive child as only a receiver of knowledge. We do not have faith on children's ability to construct knowledge from their experiences. Even if we do believe that children construct their knowledge, we do not consider the knowledge as legitimate knowledge for classroom approval. Even if we allow children's knowledge in classrooms to articulate, we do not use them as a cognitive resources or teaching-learning opportunity to build expert knowledge.

This lack of faith towards children results introducing several detrimental practices in teaching learning. First assumption is we have to teach everything to children. This situation becomes more complex due to our another assumption that information is knowledge. In this age of globalisation and information explosion we are living in the ocean of information and practically no one can remember it completely. This insecurity leads to parroting information to students. In this process, students motivation, interest and relevance to the context get no consideration.

Writing bulky textbooks, parroting textbooks, and monologue continue to dominate classroom transaction and makes students' learning experience devoid of happiness. How we can make learning experiences joyful for students is a matter of wider discussions and can be made at some later occasion. But for now, it is important to understand that bringing joyfulness in learning does not mean integrating mere fun elements in teaching or narrating information with more musical notes rather than in monotones.

In real life situation, the ability of an individual does not determined by the amount of information (s)he posses. For a democratic society, we need people who have the ability to evaluate the quality of information, select useful information for a given task, contexualise information provided in different context, analyse given information, synthesis new information out of available information.

And here the role of education is developing these abilities to students rather than to pour them with informations. However, that does not mean we will not provide any information to students. We will provide adequate information to students in the context of constructing knowledge only. What is knowledge, what knowledge we want to construct, how we will construct knowledge are pertinent questions to be asked. Their answers intersect the domains of philosophy, contemporary socio-politico-economic context, and educational theories. We can discuss these issues at some later stage. But, we must articulate our position on each and every question that has been asked so far.

It is not easy to change the perception in isolation. The socio-economic structure, cultural ethos, and political ideology together shape the perception in a complex way and we have to understand that complexity. This understanding of social complexity would help us to structure curriculum and bring examination reform. Largely the way we assess students dictate the focus and nature of learning. And we must discuss on how we can bring these changes. What we can do and what we want must be clearly articulated. We must understand why do we want change or want to be the part of that change?

The education system must be consistent to achieve the Constitutional vision and therefore, document has articulated broad aims of education as to develop commitment to democracy and constitutional values of equality, justice, freedom, concerns for others' well being, secularism, respect for human dignity and rights.

In order to realise the broad aims of education NCF-2005 proposes following five guiding principles for curriculum development:

connecting knowledge to life outside the 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 into classroom life and,
nurturing an over-riding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic polity of the country. (NCERT, 2005; p. 5)

For recent context of Universal Elementary Education (UEE), NCF asked to reflect the commitment to UEE in curriculum design. To attain this goal the curriculum should allow space for discourse and varied activities in the classroom. Students must be provided opportunities to think and action independently and allow students to construct knowledge. School education  must provide  the means and opportunities to enhance the child's creative expression and the capacity for aesthetic appreciation  (p. 11). The education must be integrated with work. Working as a socio-economic process in school education is a context to develop social temper. 

NCF   2005 addressed the challenges posed by market forces and globalisation of economy on Indian education and nurturing of children. Under the dominance of market force and  commodification of knowledge , local traditional knowledge and crafts are loosing their importance. Some of them are even gradually vanishing from the community. In this context, we need to  respect children's native wisdom and imagination . The education system must develop  self-esteem and ethics  and  cultivate children's creativity  (p. 5). We need to acknowledge the knowledge and address the questions students themselves bring in their classrooms. Their queries would be a resource to conduct classroom activities. NCF   2005 suggested practice of critical pedagogy at all levels of school and in teacher education.

NCF-2005 finds productive work as one of the pedagogic strategies to address the challenges. First, this will connect children's life experience to classroom knowledge. Second, children from marginalised group of society could showcase their knowledge and skills related to work. Once their knowledge and skills will be valued and enter in the classroom discourse, they will gain respect from the group of people who do not have such knowledge and skills. Third, this will facilitate  a growing appreciation of cumulative human experience, knowledge and theories by building rationally upon the contextual experiences  (p. 6).

NCF-2005 observed an urgent need to foster environmental awareness and sustainable practice of living through integrating these aspects at all stages of education. It also recognises that we are living in the age of  unprecedented violence . Here the role of education should be to prepare children become empower to choose  peace as a way of life . However, this requires carefully instilling democratic values in education. Plurality in a society need to be looked at as a resource for further development. The existence of plurality should not be attributed to the product of tolerance but an indispensable condition for future development. Valuing plurality would lead to accept equal right for every citizen to live with human dignity. And denying this is a failure of democracy. Education need to instill this feeling and attitude in children through adequate teaching-learning.

The quality dimension of education and social context need to be redefined in the line of democratic ethos laid by the Constitution. The quality in education need to be examined in the light of nature of knowledge, understanding about learner and learning, and requirement of addressing the challenges facing by humanity at the various levels. The following quote of NCF   2005 summarises the criteria of evaluating quality of education in India context:

 Quality in education includes a concern for quality of life in all its dimensions. This is why a concern for peace, protection of the environment and a predisposition towards social change must be viewed as core components of quality, not merely as value premise.  (p. 9)



Conclusion

Educational aims, ways to attain these goals, and the guiding principles mentioned in NCF-2005 can be contested on the basis of current reality or more on philosophical or economic basis. However, we must have to articulate our specific disagreements. NCF-2005 itself agrees that to work towards the goal, several stakeholders of education as well as society as a whole need to work together. The mind set of the society, the market force, parent's attitude towards education and society, role of government policy etc. all influences how we want to shape our education system.

For education system alone, to transform it, it would require to refine and revisit our perspective towards learning, teaching, learning theories, philosophy and sociology of education etc. These perspectives are closely related to how do we set and structure education system, how do we treat our teachers and learners, what do we want our learners to learn and how do we assess our learners. Before all that we need to start communicate with each other, articulate our views as well as our action. We must be in a position to narrate our action to wider community to learn and validate our experiences.

References

NCERT (2005). National Curriculum Framework 2005. New Delhi: National Council of Educational Research and Training.
Sadgopal, A. (2005). On the pedagogy of writing a national curriculum framework: Some reflections from an insider. Social Scientist, 33(9/10), 23-36.




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