National Curricular Frameworks for schools in India
Educating the nation, teaching young people in independent India, is the responsibility of the government. This is true for all the countries, whether they are democratic or other forms of government. How this is planned and implemented? Since colonial period and up to early 1960s, Governments both State and Union Government used to set up committees and commissions whose reports formed the base. After India began to come out with education policies in 1960s, National Council of Educational Research and Training, an autonomous organisation set up by the Ministry of Education under Registration of Societies Act comes out with National Curriculum Frameworks.
- The Curriculum for the Ten-Year School: A Framework 1976
- National Curriculum for Elementary and Secondary Education: A Framework 1988
- National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2000
- National Curriculum Framework 2005
- National Curriculum Framework for Foundation Stage 2022
- National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023
The first one is based on National Policy on Education 1968, the second, third and fourth curricular frameworks are guided by National Policy on Education 1986. The fifth and sixth are based on the vision National Education Policy 2020.
These policy documents guide NCERT, State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs) and state and national level Examination Boards to formulate:
(a) educational structure in the form of stages such as Early Child Care Education (2 or 3 years), Primary (5 years), Upper Primary or Middle (3 years), Secondary (2 years) and Higher Secondary (2 years)
(b) subjects that can be taught in each grade of all the stages;
(c) assessment framework – examinations to be conducted for the entire 12-14 years.
(d) broad topics, themes and objectives of syllabus in different subjects
(e) changes required in the school and university system at the systemic level such as classroom structure, time tables, teacher recruitment, teacher professional development, use of technology in the school for administration and for classroom processes, providing facilities to students including textbooks and other learning materials in schools.
In recent years, many state governments have also started to adapt or adopt curriculum framework for schools and come out with state curriculum frameworks. These policy documents provide insight into the way governments guide the educational development in India. Every teacher, regardless of stage and subject for which they teach, is required to go through these documents for better understanding of what they teach in their classroom and why.