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NEW DELHI: The review of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), a comprehensive exercise that will look at content and methods of teaching in schools, will commence from the second week of November with the setting up of focus groups to examine and put forward proposals for school education in India.

The new curriculum framework will be completed by December 2020 with the National Council of Educational Research Training ( NCERT ) submitting a road map to the human resource development ministry recently.

Consultations of focus groups will begin after finalisation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

TOI first reported on May 18 this year that the new curriculum review will commence post-Lok Sabha elections. "The NCERT has been asked to go ahead. With the new education policy proposing to develop and establish an integrated foundational curricular and pedagogical framework, work will begin after NEP is finalised," said a senior HRD ministry official. NEP is expected to be ready before next year-end.

Confirming that the review process is set to begin - after a gap of 15 years - Hrushikesh Senapaty, director, NCERT, said revisions will weed out content that is outdated, and incorporate contemporary and emerging trends. "The new NEP will be taken into account and there are proposals for an integrated curriculum. The focus groups are going to be formed latest by the second week of November, if not earlier.

The NCF provides the framework for school syllabi and writing of textbooks, while providing guidelines on teaching practices. Of the four NCFs released in 1975, 1988, 2000 and 2005, the last removed focus from teachers to students to ensure "learning without burden". As has been the case, curriculum revision can be contentious and politically challenging with a clash of right- and left-wing ideologies.

Senapaty said instead of a complete overhaul, the NCF 2020 will be more of a review of the NCF 2005 "as many of the recommendations have never been implemented and many others have become outdated".

In the draft NEP 2020, it has been proposed that adolescent education programme and national population education programme, educational technology like computational thinking from age six onwards and vocational education are to be integrated into school curriculum. The deadline set for the new NCF is December 2020, which will be 15 years since the last one. While NCERT is yet to decide the chairperson for the committee, according to Senapaty, the HRD ministry is working on the selection.

