Dos and Don’ts for schools
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has decided to lighten the syllabus load for students in the academic year 2022-23 as academics in schools have been disturbed in the last two years with continuous school closures and unavailability of online resources for many students.
In accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, NCERT is ready to revamp the curriculum and the council will release more details once the expert suggestions have been studied.
Here the question that arises is, how will the new syllabus lookalike, will there be the exclusion of chapters, elimination of difficult topics, or introduction of new chapters.
Hopefully, the following will be a few highlighting features of the new syllabus as per NEP 2020 :
- There will be new chapters and topics in the books based on skills and experiential learning.
- The explanation part will be more effective and will have a new approach. In place of theory the new syllabus will revolve around experiential learning based activities.
- There will be an omission of a few chapters which are not linked with next grades.
- When a syllabus reduction exercise is undertaken, mostly repetitive topics are omitted, and topics that have been explained in a lengthier format than they are actually meant to be are summarized.
- The new books as per NEP 2020 will be lighter in weight and will be less costly.
What should schools do as of now?
- The schools should wait a month or two for ordering new textbooks and wait till the new syllabus is released. It will help them to save money also and will help their school to remain updated.
- Less number of pages mean less burden for the schools and students so, the schools have to wait for new textbooks.
- The schools should understand that if they order the existing textbooks and if the syllabus is changed or revised then the parents will ask thousands of questions.
- The schools should have an eye for the latest development.
- The schools ask the publisher or supplier to show the specimen of new textbooks which are designed and printed as per NEP 2020.
- The school management or principals are required to follow the NCERT bulletin regularly.
It is always better to be aware of the recent development happenings in the related scenario and take a wise call. The supplier and publisher may try to mislead you saying that all books are the same, there is no change in books, nothing is changed even they may say that it’s a rumor. The school leaders must understand that they are businessmen not school leaders. Ultimately, you have to run the show. So, be wise and wait for a few days until new guidelines are issued.
Dr Manjeet Jain
Principal – Jain Heritage School – Belagavi
CBSE – District Coordinator -Training