NCERT to start preparing trim curriculum

Value education, physical education to be given importance

The NCERT will begin an exercise to prepare a new curriculum for the country's schools by significantly cutting down the existing syllabus to help students learn better and grow up as "good human beings".

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said the new curriculum will lead to the "holistic development" of students with the incorporation of provisions for proper physical education, value education, life-skills education and experiential learning.

The council will start with inviting suggestions from the teachers, parents, students and "all other stakeholders" this week.

The new curriculum, which would not only reduce the weight of school  bags but also help  students get a better grasp over the subjects and topics that they have to study, will be introduced from next year, if it is ready by then, or from the academic session 2020-21, the minister  said.

"Plenty of information is not education. Students are not just data banks. Today, the syllabus is so cramped that there is no time left for students. They read, mug up and appear for examinations. We are only producing examination-giving students. This has to be changed," Javadekar told reporters.

For this, he said, his ministry has asked the NCERT to start evaluating the existing curriculum to find out what can be removed from it and what must be retained.

The ministry has initiated the move following suggestions  from teachers, academicians, school education department officials from various states and over 200 non-government organisations during a six-day workshop held last year.

"The aim of education has to be to bring out a good human being through the system. But for that, you require physical education, value education, life-skill education and experiential learning, which is absent (from the school curriculum) today," the minister said.

In a recent statement to Rajya Sabha TV, he said he had asked NCERT to cut the school syllabus by half, even as the minister clarified that he did not mean it in terms of percentage.

It was about rationalisation of the existing syllabus to create space for physical education, value education, life-skills education and experiential learning.

He invited suggestions from teachers, parents, students, academicians and "all other stakeholders", saying they will get two months' time, starting from March, to submit their feedback on the move.