Barriers for the Implementation of NCF- 2005 in School Education

                                                                               Sudhir, 301.

    

The review of the National Curriculum Framework, 2000 was initiated specifically to address the problem of curriculum load on children.  A committee appointed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the early 1990s had analyzed this problem, tracing its roots to the system’s tendency to treat information as knowledge.  In its report, “Learning without Burden,” the committee pointed out that learning at school cannot become a joyful experience unless we change our perception of the child as a receiver of knowledge and more beyond the convention of using textbooks as the basis for examination.  Therefore the National Curriculum Framework 2005 gave emphasis to the learning from “known to unknown,” from “concrete to abstract” and from “local to global.”  It favored child as a Natural learner who can learn from different activities and construct the knowledge from his past experiences.  Initially, children are cognitively oriented to the here and now, able to reason and act logically on concrete experiences.  Children may remember many facts but they may not understand them or be able to relate them to the world around them.  So the main purpose of the teaching is to provide proper environment where the child can construct their previous experiences in the present scenario.  But the ground reality is completely different.  Though NCF 2005 has given emphasis to learning without burden and presents the child as the natural learner who can learn from his own experiences but still in many schools the old techniques and methods of instructional base of teaching has been adopted where the child is still the passive listener.  The main emphasis is only given to memories the facts and information and reproduces it in the examination. 

·         The ground reality:  The ground reality is that in most of the schools in India, students, teachers and administrators are apathetic towards the process of education, fraudulent ways are being adopted to complete the process and a large number of educated youth find themselves without jobs.  It is quite anomalous that when the people, government and those involved in implementing it, consider the education to be desirable thing, they choose to ignore the real state of affair on ground.  Policy makers, politicians, social activists and education experts are seen taking idealist positions when talking about education, most of the time.  Do they really want to continue and expand the existing education system in its present form? Besides the degeneration of the process, education as an activity seems to be going without any direction.

·         Lack of supervisory staff:  Sources in the department admit that the educational standard has taken a hit due to severe crunch of supervisory staff.  Of the 49 Mandal Education Officer (MEO) posts in the Krishna district 27 are vacant while only 22 have regular appointees.  If such is the conditions of our Government schools then how can we able to fulfill the aim of constructive learning because if there is a shortage of supervisory staff then who will judge the performance of teachers and the outcomes of the learners?

·         Extra burden on Teachers:  Because of lack of infrastructure and staff in schools the teachers have been given the extra responsibilities which further affect the performance of the teachers.  Students are the natural learners and they learn from their surroundings but if their surroundings and environment lacks the infrastructure then neither the student nor the teacher in being able to do anything.  No doubt teacher is the game changer and it is the teacher who helps the child to construct his knowledge but if teacher is loaded with extra burden then what would you accept from teacher?

·         No emphasis to the learning based on understanding:  Though NCF 2005 has given emphasis to the constructive learning which is purely based on understanding but still in school the old method of Jug mug theory has been given importance.  Still no one believes in the natural learning of the child rather in many schools child or learner is still a passive listener. Today the biggest question which is rising in front of us is that why there is so much difference between policies and the actual ground reality?  Is it because of poor implementation or because of the lack of will on the part of administrators?

·         Rote Learning:   Carl Jarvis, an educator from London, is helping 'abillionideas' in creating awareness about the rote learning mentality gripping our school system in India. It is ironic, that we still follow what the colonial system Britishers left for us whereas Carl (another Britisher) is now propagating how harmful that can be for true education. A group of parents are meeting Carl on Friday in Gurgaon to discuss the same. Over the last couple of years, studies reviewing the performance of students in professional courses show that they don't meet the benchmark. Nearly 75% of second year engineering students in colleges in and around Chennai failed in at least one subject in the third semester. Months after acing their Class 12 exams, nearly 40% of first year medical students in 27 colleges across the state failed, a review in 2011 revealed. Among dental students too the pass rate of final year students in the state was around 40%. 
Now, a perception survey shows that more than 80% of school principals across the country blame rote learning for the poor standards of learning in students passing out of schools. Nearly 70% of the principals surveyed feel that today's curriculum did not give sufficient scope for creative thinking. Experts believe that the educational system followed in most schools today is the 'factory model' designed between the 18th and 19th century to suit the needs of the Industrial Revolution. Since then, there have been dramatic changes in the learning environment and lifestyle. Researchers across the globe have reached the consensus that the key to addressing these challenges is to bring a transformation in student thinking, classroom dynamics, learning ambience, technology integration and teacher empowerment. The above information reveals that still our education system needs a change in the ground level because though policies are made for constructive or co-operative learning which is completely based on understanding and develops the mental abilities of the child but still it is far from implementation.

·         Corporal Punishment:  The news published in Times of India in August 13, 2012, 2:50am emphasizes that corporal punishment is required for the desired behavior of the child which is against the norms of NCF 2005.  As many as 30% principals and 40% teachers surveyed believed that strict enforcement of discipline is necessary for proper teaching and the teacher's control over students is a must for discipline. They also said that there can be no discipline without fear of the teacher in students and those not paying attention to studies should be physically punished.

·         Less emphasis on co-scholastic activities:   The News also explored that over 70% of the principals said that co-scholastic areas are definitely relevant to curriculum and for building students' self-confidence, self-control, sportsmanship, solidarity, teamwork, competitiveness, health, etc.  However, less than half of who said so mentioned that their school places no major emphasis for these areas in curriculum. Schools on an average spend 9% and 10% each of time, respectively, on physical education/sports and co-scholastic activities like music/art/dance/ elocution/dramatics. About 60% of class time is spent on learning academic subjects. The above statement completely presenting the contradiction between the policy of NCF 2005 and the ground reality.

·         Dominance of Number system:  In school there is the dominance of number system.  Schools don’t have any concern with learning rather their main concern is to produce scores which further helps these institutes to get more admissions.  Parents also don’t bother about real learning of their children, they only have the interest that how much score their children got during examination?  If such is the recent trends of the present schools then where is the implementation of NCF 2005?

       Thus the biggest question which is now rising in front of us is that: is there any co-ordination between the head and hands?  And if there is no coordination then what is the cause of it?  Education will become burden if these institutions practice such kind of wrong ideas.  We need the Education in which the child’s natural instinct of learning cannot be suppressed and if it is suppressed by us then we all are the culprit of humanity.  The futuristic society will not spare us if we don’t rethink about it and find the exact measure to curb it.

Reference:

NCF 2005

Pandey, Sandeep “A critique of the modern education system.” (India together, Feb 20,  2015)

M Ramya, “Rote learning an evil in education system, national survey reveals” (Times of India,Dec 11, 2012)

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ (Aug 13, 2012, 02.50AM)