Centre likely to release national curriculum for first 5 yrs soon

CHENNAI: "The Union government is set to release the national curriculum for the first five years of schooling (3 years of preschool + classes 1 and 2) by Feburary-end,” said Sanjay Kumar, Secretary of School Education, Ministry of Education during the first G20 meeting here on Tuesday.

The states can customise the curriculum as per their need, Kumar noted.

Addressing the media persons post the education meeting with foreign delegates, Kumar added, "By the time, the child comes to class 1, the student must have undergone three years of preschool learning and have the basic skills of literacy and numeracy."

Hence, owing to this, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has prepared a curriculum for three years of preschool and for Classes 1 and 2.

Majorly focusing on technology-based learning, the working group education meeting with over 80 delegates from various countries commenced at Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) Research Park. Besides the G20 countries, nine additional countries took part in the meeting.

The initial meeting held in Chennai discussed digital technologies in school education, higher education and skill development. And the subsequent meeting in Amritsar will focus on research and collaboration.

The third meeting in Bhubaneswar will brainstorm on skills and future of work, while the final meeting scheduled in Pune will focus on foundational literacy and numeracy.

Besides the meeting, several stalls were presented on various educational programmes across the country such as SWAYAM, SAMARTH, NCERT DIKSHA and more. International stalls for the Netherlands, France, United Kingdom and China were also part of the exhibition, which is open to the public till February 2.

K Sanjay Murthy, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education speaking at the event insisted the need for countries to collaborate further and work on upskilling its youth.

"Technology-based learning is the need of the hour, specifically in school education, higher education and skill development. As we have begun to accept the need for tech-based learning, next is to find the methods to equip with the learning, "said Murthy.

V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras said, "We have been provided inputs from different nations on what challenges and best practices that are being followed in different places. This gives us a unique opportunity for all of us to understand them so that we could work together to come out with effective solutions."