New curriculum will have learning on traffic safety, civil defense, and vocational learning; curriculum will also focus on building entrepreneurial skills like communication, self-management
The new curriculum has been drafted for Std III to X. REPRESENTATION PIC/ISTOCK
The Maharashtra School Education and Sports Department has drafted a new curriculum framework for Std III to X. A new syllabus for subjects like Vocational Learning and optional subjects like Traffic Safety & Civil Defence has been added to the curriculum in line with the National Education Policy (NEP).
According to the policy document released by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) this week, students are to learn skills such as first aid and bandaging, the basics of firefighting, and the ‘language’ of road signs, along with types of disasters and team drills to manage them.
“These subjects help students focus on individual responsibility,” said Mahendra Ganpule, a member of the drafting committee.
“So far, we’ve looked at schooling as a means to finish our educational pursuits and to get a job. The new curriculum aims to alter this perspective. Now, the students will also learn basic life skills at school, from handling a medical patient to learning simple practical skills — be it changing light bulbs or gas cylinders as a part of the civil defence course,” he added.
According to the syllabus draft, the students will also partake in vocational education such as agricultural knowledge, poultry farming, gardening, courses in artificial intelligence and robotics, and even food and tourism.
Pre-secondary students, studying in Std VI-VIII, will be introduced to trades, working with machines and materials, and working in the service sector. As the years progress, the syllabus pushes the students to gain hands-on experience in the fields, too.
Thus far, the new SCERT syllabus has only been released as a policy, and implementation will take shape once it’s approved, said officials. “The teachers will be taught the needful skills and will then relay them to the students. Schools can arrange field visits when necessary, and those who cannot will teach the students theoretically,” said Ganpule.
The curriculum will also focus on building entrepreneurial skills within students with classes like communication, self-management skills, and information. The syllabus for regular subjects like languages, mathematics, sciences, and social studies have been retained with a few tweaks, focusing on the contributions of Indian academicians.
The SCERT has asked education experts, teachers, scholars, parents, officials, organisations, and all social groups to revert with their feedback on the new syllabus draft. The new schooling system will adopt a ‘5+3+3+4' approach, replacing the traditional 10+2 system.
As per a government notice released on July 14, schools across the state are also to adopt the syllabus charted out in line with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in the state of Maharashtra.
The new textbooks are to be introduced in a phased manner with contextualisation, wherever necessary. A state-level steering committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of the school education minister to ensure proper implementation of the NEP.
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