NEP in Karnataka schools from November, pilot in 20K anganwadis

Karnataka is likely to implement the National Education Policy (NEP) in school education from November.

In the first phase, NEP will be rolled out in 20,000 anganwadis under the early childhood education component, School Education & Literacy Minister B C Nagesh said. This will be done in partnership with the Department of Women & Child Development (DWCD).

According to Nagesh, the government is waiting for the National Curriculum Framework (NCF). "The union education ministry has said that the NCF will be available in September. We will release our Karnataka Curriculum Framework (KCF) by October. The aim is to implement NEP-based education in early childhood care from November," the minister said.

Nagesh also specified that there is no proposal to merge his department with the DWCD or bring anganwadis under his purview. "There is no proposal to merge the departments. The implementation of NEP will be ours and the rest of the activities will continue under DWCD," he said.

A major concern over anganwadis is the shortage of qualified teachers to implement NEP, Women & Child Development Minister Halappa Achar said.

Achar said there are 40,786 Anganawadi workers with Class 10 qualification who cannot be utilised for teaching under NEP. "The department is thinking of alternative arrangements and those with postgraduate, undergraduate and PUC 2 qualification will be trained to teach under NEP," he said.

Nagesh also said that 14,000 anganwadi teachers have been trained by the Tata Foundation in the backward Kalyana Karnataka region.

Currently, the main activity at anganwadis is to engage children with Chili-Pili books. With the implementation of NEP, children above three years of age will be introduced to concept-based education. The draft NCF mentions that 85 per cent of a child's cumulative brain development occurs before age six.