This document summarizes key aspects of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 for school education in India. It discusses problems with the existing curriculum such as an overemphasis on examinations. It describes the process of drafting the NCF, including the formation of focus groups. The NCF aims to make learning student-centered and linked to real life. It advocates seeing the child as an active learner and recognizing local and traditional knowledge. The NCF outlines reforms for various curriculum areas like science, languages and social sciences. It also proposes systemic reforms in areas like teacher education, examinations and quality of education.

1. NATIONAL CURRICULUM
FRAMEWORK 2005 For School
Education
Dr.C.Thanavathi
M.A., M.Phil., M.Ed., M.Phil., DGT,
DCA, CGT, PGDHE, SET, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of History,
V.O.C.College of Education,
Thoothukudi-628 008.
Tamil Nadu. India.
9629256771
thanavathic@thanavathi-edu.in
http://thanavathi-edu.in/index.html

2. Problem of Curriculum Load
 Joyless learning
 Examination system
 Textbook as the ‘Truth’
 Structure of syllabus
 Language Textbooks
 Starting Early

3.  Came in to Existence • Chairman Prof. Yash
Pal, formerly Chairperson University Grants
Commission • Assisted by Twenty-one focus
groups • Methodology: Analysis of existing
curriculum, consultation of commission and
committees documents, consultations with
Educationists, planners, Administrators,
Principals, headmasters, teachers, parents,
students, general public

4. Making of NCF-2005
 Need of drafting NCF-2005
 Procedure of making of NCF-2005

5.  (a) the school system is characterized by an inflexibility that
makes it resistant to change;
 (b) learning has become an isolated activity, which does not
encourage children to link knowledge with their lives in any
organic or vital way;
 (c) schools promote a regime of thought that discourages
creative thinking and insights;
 (d) what is presented and transmitted in the name of
learning in schools bypasses vital dimensions of the human
capacity to create new knowledge;
 (e) the “future” of the child has taken centre stage to the
near exclusion of the child's" present”, which is detrimental
to the well-being of the child as well as the society and the
nation.

6. NCF DRAFTING COMMITTEE

8. NCF-Aims of Education
(Based on the Constitutions’ Vision of India)
 Independence of thought and action
 Learning to respond to new situations
flexibly and creatively
 Pre-disposition for participation in
democratic process and social change
 Empower all children to learn

9. Distortion of Aims of Education
(Learning has become a source of burden and
stress for children)
 Textbooks/Workbooks
 Information Overload
 Incomprehension
 Tests and Examinations

10. All children are motivated and
capable of learning
Children learn in a variety of
ways
Developing capacity for abstract
thinking, reflection and work are
most important aspects of learning
Child as a ‘critical’ learner and
constructor of knowledge
Different types of knowledge as
embodied in the traditional
curriculum as well as in the world
outside the school
NCF – Learning and Knowledge
The Child as Learner and What Should be Learnt
NCF Perspectives
Not true of large numbers of
children
Children learn in limited ways
Developing generally only skills
necessary for helping students
pass or excel in examinations
Child as passive imbibers of
textbook information and
providing set answers to all
questions
Knowledge as embodied in
textbooks
Commonly Held Views

11. Local Knowledge is a Rich Source of Learning
for All Children
Children’s Knowledge and Local Knowledge

12. Implications for Curriculum & Practice
 Teaching for Construction of Knowledge
 The Value of Interactions
 Designing Learning Experiences
 Approaches to Planning
 Critical Pedagogy

13. Framing Questions
If the answer is, ‘It was red’, what might be the
questions?
 What was the color of the flower?
 Why did you put the letter into that box?
 Why did she stop so suddenly at the traffic
light?

14. NCF CURRICULUM AREAS
Traditional
 Mathematics
 Language
 Science
 Social Sciences
Other Areas
 Art Education
 Health & Physical
Education
 Education for Peace
 Habitat & Learning

15. NCF – Language
• Three language formula reaffirmed – importance of home
language
• Multilingualism as a resource
• “English as subject” and “English as medium”

16. NCF - Science
What biology can Janabai, an ‘incapable’ tribal secondary
school student learn ? What biology does she know ?
• Can use different plants as sources of food, medicines,
fuel, wood, dyes and building materials
• Recognises differences between trees and notices
seasonal variations based on shape, size, distribution of
leaves and flowers, smells, textures
• Can identify 100 different plants – more than her biology
teacher who believes Janabai is a poor student

17. NCF - Science
• Science should nurture curiosity and creativity particularly
in relationship to the environment
• Science teaching should be placed in the context of
children’s environment to help them enter the world of
work
• Awareness of environmental concerns

18. NCF – Social Sciences
• Equip children to think critically on social issues
• Interdisciplinary approach to key national concerns such
as gender, human rights, marginalised minorities, etc.
• Civics to be recast as political science
• Significance of history – conception of past and civic
identity

19. NCF-Mathematics
 Main goal of Mathematics is Mathematisation
rather than Knowledge of Mathematics

20. NCF – Systemic Reforms
Concern for
Quality

21. NCF – Systemic Reforms
Teacher education for curriculum renewal

23. NCF – Systemic Reforms
• Shift from content-based teaching to problem solving and
understanding
• Schools should evolve continuous evaluation for
diagnosis and remedial learning
• Maths and English board exams at different levels
• No board or state level exams at Class 5, 8 or 11
Examination Reforms

24. NCF - Systemic Reforms
• Shift from content-based teaching to problem solving
and understanding
Examination Reforms
Understanding in Mathematics
• If you know that 235+367=602, how much is 234+369? How
did you find the answer?
• Change any one digit in 5384. Did the number increase or
decrease? By how much

25. THANK YOU