Teacher + student = Knowledge economy

Much is rightly made of upskilling and reskilling in the context of the rapidly changing – and, indeed, disrupted – terrain of the professional workforce. Much change is also desperately required closer to the ‘source’ that leads up the knowledge and skill chain. The National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE), released last week, understands this. As one of four curriculum frameworks, it proposes a broad structure of school education that is fit for purpose for a rapidly growing and emerging India. Innovation and openness are central pillars of this blueprint – giving equal status to all subjects and learning domains, integrating vocational education. The shift away from a siloed, information-heavy approach to learning is much welcome. How this will be enabled will be its true test.

NCFSE is purportedly designed with the teacher at its centre. This certainly makes sense, since a large proportion of India’s school-going population relies heavily on teachers, both qualitatively and quantitatively, to gain from attending classrooms. NCFSE builds on earlier iterations, moving towards a semester-based system, blurring of ‘hard’ choices between streams (science, commerce, arts) and dismantling embedded hierarchies of disciplines regardless of academic or vocational education. The recommendation of a biannual Board exam will help de-stress learning.

There are real challenges that the NCF proposes to tackle – translating the intent of creating a system of openness, inclusivity, confidence and innovation into a real knowledge economy. Arguably, the most crucial challenge will be creating a body of educators that can transform NCF into reality. Here again, the framework for imparting teacher education will be vital.