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NCERT plans to reduce the "curriculum overload" by 15% as of now, and the target is to reach 50% by 2021 in order to reduce the burden on students. The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Prakash Javadekar.
School students can feel relief as the NCERT books content is expected to go down by 10-15% from the year 2019-20. This move is seen as a part of an exercise undertaken by the HRD to make things easier for the youth and reduce the load on them.
Union HRD Minister, Mr. Prakash Javadekar said in an NCERT meeting on Saturday that the target is to reach a 50% reduction of the “curriculum overload”. He also indicated that the review of the curriculum would be undertaken to ensure holistic education which will include time for physical education, life skills education and value education. Javadekar said after the meeting that they are looking at reducing the target of 50% reduction of syllabus by 2021. The education ministers of Gujarat, Assam, and Delhi also attended the meeting in Vigyan Bhawan.
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Javadekar had mentioned in the past that by removing duplication and reducing the portions which are redundant, NCERT will bring down the curriculum gradually. According to an official, there were more than a lakh suggestions on the basis of which this rationalization exercise was done.
The number of NCERT textbooks published this year is expected to go up from Rs.6 crore to Rs.8 crore. Apart from this, Javadekar also mentioned that states would be graded on the basis of performance indicators in education.
All the states will be evaluated on the basis of the performance indicators. There will be 70 parameters, and this will improve the quality and give a fair idea of how each state excels. There will be healthy competition to enhance the performance. The HRD official also said that teachers’ e-attendance is one such parameter to check the problem of absenteeism. Another example is maintaining health cards of students.
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The HRD ministry had conducted a performance reading exercise in which Chandigarh and Gujarat were on top. On the basis of this result, there is a possibility that the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) may take place in Chandigarh.
Regarding the No Detention Policy, Javadekar said that states can conduct exams in classes V and VIII to improve the quality of learning. Except for five states, most of the states were in favour of conducting the exam, he said.
