SCF should have positive outcome in education system: CS

Chief secretary J Alam has called for fixing the problems plaguing the State’s educational system and stressed that State Curriculum Framework (SCF) should lead to a positive outcome when developed.
Addressing a State-level seminar on Development of Nagaland State Curriculum Framework organised by SCERT Nagaland at Capital Convention here on Wednesday, he said developing SCF required a lot of diligence and hard work.
He acknowledged the experts involved in developing position paper for tirelessly working and submitting 25 position papers already within a short span of time.
Alam claimed that SCF would contribute to improving the quality education and producing good citizens by impart values and right knowledge to students.
As education touched everybody, he said it was good to having strong views on the state of education and how it should be improved. He also admitted that there were things many might not agree upon because of the weaknesses in the system, though there were also many good works being done.
He recalled that the New Education Policy (NEP), 2020 was framed after a gap of 34 years, claiming that it was announced after an exhaustive consultation with subject experts both within and outside the country.
The chief secretary lauded officials of the Higher Education, Technical Education and School Education departments, besides SCERT, for conducting a series of consultations on how to translate NEP into action. He also reminded them of the challenges in transmitting transacting knowledge between teachers and students in classrooms and suggested how best it could be done. He stressed on proper imparting of knowledge to students as this impacted the learning outcomes.
He said the approach in NEP 2020 was a bottom-up approach where subject experts contribute based on which a state curriculum framework would be designed. This he said will then be used for the national curriculum framework and the national curriculum framework will be developed by the Centre.
Another big challenge, he pointed out was the accessibility to education as there were first-generation learners, children from poor economic background and issue of denial of education to girl child, stressing that all of them had to be brought under the education system.
Meanwhile, addressing the seminar, commissioner & secretary School Education & SCERT, Kevileno Angami stated that the inputs given by the people involved in the curriculum framework were critical as they would form the basis on which SCERT will develop textbooks for the students to be studying in schools.
While stating that education was at the threshold of change, transiting from the old to the new with NEP 2020, Kevileno said that under the new policy, it will be a 5+3+3+4 system, where 5 years will be the foundational stage, 3 years in the preparatory stage, 3 years in the middle stage, and 4 years in the secondary stage. She underlined the need to recalibrate and restructure the education system as envisaged in NEP, 2020.
Stressing the need for change, Kevileno said there was a need to provide a curriculum to the students where they can study and adapt to the changing times.
In her keynote address, SCERT director NC Kikon stated that NEP 2020 was to develop citizens capable of rational thought and action, possessing compassion and empathy, courage and resilience, scientific temper and creative imagination with sound ethical morals and values.
She said that policy aims at producing engaged, productive, and contributing citizens for building an equitable inclusive, and plural society. Kikon also said that the policy envisions an education system that contributes directly to transforming India into an equitable and vibrant society, thereby making India a global knowledge superpower.
She said SCERTs in the country have been entrusted as the state nodal agency for the development of state curriculum framework and have been directed to set up 25 state focus groups to work on 25 identified curricular areas. She stated that the Nagaland state focus group for 25 subject areas worked to bring out a draft curriculum framework guided by the visions and principles of the NEP, 2020 to integrate and infuse traditional knowledge, cultural values, and indigenous education in all the subject areas of the state curriculum framework. She added the draft was prepared considering the difficulties faced in the present system of education and looking at the challenges ahead.
During the seminar, sessions on curriculum framework for school education, teacher education, adult education, issues and challenges, and future courses of action were also taken up.