With National Education Policy-2020 in the offing. Therefore, the school-based reform and innovations are required to adapt and adjust the curricula to make them relevant to the local context and needs of children to live up the values of equity and inclusion of all children.
The sound beginning can be made at the "Foundation Stage" - five year schooling for children in the age group 3-8 years - since it would require main-streaming a lot of out-of-school children in the age group 4-8 years with accelerated multi-and-micro-level self-paced teaching methods and materials in the mother tongue of the child and transition to the medium of instruction in the next stage of three-year education for children in the age group 8-11 years.
According to a UNICEF report, the adapted curriculum should provide meaningful educational experiences for all children. “The goal of the curriculum should be to provide meaningful and realistic educational experiences for all children. The aim of the curriculum should not be to just cover the content set in the curriculum, but the amount of material or content actually learned by the students. It is therefore, a key variable shaping the quality of learning for children,” Says a UNICEF report originating from Nepal.
The report brings forth the following key features of a child-centred curriculum:
Developmentally appropriate: All children progress through a series of systematic and successive changes in the cognitive, emotional, physical and social domains that enhance their overall adaptation to the environment. The particular stages of development; which reflect the social, cognitive, emotional and physical capacities of a child to play, have a critical role in shaping children’s learning. Curriculum content must be responsive to meet the developmental needs of children at different developmental stages and ages.
Relevant: Learning content and processes that are meaningful, relevant and capture the interests of young children facilitate children’s learning. Gender sensitive: The curriculum also plays a key role in addressing gender issues. It should not reflect or reinforce the gender stereotypes of women and men.
Competency based: Learner outcomes in the different curricular areas should be clearly defined. It is critical that the curriculum focuses on ‘mastery’ rather than ‘content coverage’, combining both knowledge and practical skills.
Well linked: The key learning areas are clearly defined and linked to complement each other. In particular, it should ensure a learning process that is continuous and progressive, linking to and building on the foundation of children’s acquired knowledge and skil
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Well spaced: Specifying adequate time for instruction to cover the different learning areas accompanied by a clear description of achievable learning outcomes makes a tangible link between curricula goals and learner outcomes. This should be responsive to the reality that while ‘all children may not accomplish learning at the same speed, they all need the same skills’.
Regularly reviewed and updated: Consultations with local community regarding language of teaching learning, school calendar are important for community support for the values and skills being imparted.
Assessments linkage to curricular goals and objectives: With practical guidance to teachers on what to look for, how to document what they see and how to use assessment findings for supporting the learner.
It needs to be understood that for the successful transaction of curriculum, the child-centred approaches are required with appropriate curricular materials or teaching-learning materials. Furthermore, learning and teaching strategies need to be responsive to the needs and interest of the child. The teacher is viewed as a facilitator of learning potential of children and a guide.
I feel, the NGOs must shift the focus to the education of children in the age group 3-8 years and concentrate on out-of-school children in this age group and mainstream then with alternative education methods.
Pic.: CULP-Jaipur
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