The Indian Ministry of Education has formed a national steering committee to develop new National Curriculum Frameworks (NCF) in line with the National Education Policy 2020.

According to the official statement issued by the Union Education Ministry, the 12-member committee will develop four curriculum frameworks, which will be national curriculum framework for school education, national curriculum framework for early childhood care and education, national curriculum framework for teacher education and national curriculum framework for adult education.  The terms of reference requires attention to all the reform recommendations mentioned for these four areas in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.  In addition, the new national curriculum frameworks will consider the implications of situations such as COVID-19 pandemic for future.

The committee will have a term of three years to complete the task which will include wide ranging consultations and drawing in of inputs from state and national level institutions, subject experts, educationists, scholars etc.

British Council comments:

The revision to NCF is coming after more than 15 years since it was last published by the NCERT in 2005.  The national curriculum framework serves as a guideline for syllabus, textbooks, teaching and learning practices in the country. 

Interestingly, the NCF committee will be led by Dr K Kasturirangan who had also chaired the formulation of the NEP 2020 which recommended development of new NCF. A lot of synergy and close fit can be expected between the new NCF and the proposals for curriculum reforms outlined in the NEP 2020.  The focus is likely to be to shift away the current culture of rote learning towards holistic and multidisciplinary education through flexible and innovative curricula, experiential learning and synergy in curriculum across all levels of education from early childhood care and education to school education to higher education. 

The goals set out for the new curricula in the NEP 2020 include skills such as evidence-based thinking, creativity and innovation, which would likely make Indian students more prepared and ready for higher education in the UK and other overseas countries. However, this will be a long-term process – the design phase is planned to take three years and the first cohort of students educated under the new curriculum will not complete their school education until some years after that. In the more immediate future, the British Council will pay attention to any opportunities that arise for UK institutions to contribute to the curriculum design process.

For more details, please refer to the following links

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1756800

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/education-ministry-forms-panel-to-draft-new-national-curriculum-framework-in-line-with-nep-101632254355197.html

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/k-kasturirangan-to-head-panel-to-develop-new-curriculum-framework/article36597735.ece

If you have any questions, please write to Sandeepa Sahay (Regional Coordinator, South Asia Education Insight Hub)