NEP 2020 is based on the pillars of access- access to education to all the students irrespective of their geographical location/resources, equity- amongst all the teaching fraternity along with the students, parents. It will also aim at making the curriculum more effective and affordable to everyone! It also created a sense of oneness as they have reached out to all the educators all across India for their valuable suggestions and inputs, and accountability- where not only the students but the school, teachers as well as parents are accountable for the child’s learning process.
Firstly, NEP aims to make our students independent learners, researchers, self-reliant, effective communicators, problem solvers, and most importantly strong at their skills when it comes to academics and other co-curricular areas. The NEP ensures that it gives a holistic approach to the education system prevailing in India. As a school, we are constantly striving to make students learn beyond the textbooks, understand the concepts and be able to apply their knowledge. NEP is also focussing on developing the standard of education even in the most remote regions of our country where the students do not have the right access and are not as privileged as other cities or towns. The NEP is strongly looking at coming up with strategies to make education more accessible, integrate sports in curriculum, integration of art in curricula, including role-plays and simulations to help the students become self-reliant.
Secondly, the NEP is looking at making the education system in India skill-based and competency-based, ensuring that the curriculum is being implemented in classrooms using newer and more engaging teaching methodologies and at the same time taking care that the student pedagogy is kept in mind. In today’s world, there are amazing new opportunities created for our students and this is a breakthrough to help us, help them to achieve their goals seamlessly. It becomes very essential that as a school we support this mode of learning which will help our students to take up future opportunities and will be able to show exemplary performance. Successful application of skills will also give an extra edge to our students to be able to compete and get placed in universities in India and abroad.
Thirdly, NEP strongly focuses on the successful implementation of research and innovation in our classrooms. This aspect of NEP particularly is something in which we have always made our students excel through panel discussions, debates, collaborative workshops, and assignments. Digital Literacy is also on top of the cards. These develop the research and innovation skills of the students through the activities and the projects assigned, makes for the grades 6-12, design challenges for all grades. These make the students more creative and also empathise with their surroundings. The Social and Emotional skills are also being focused on as a part of our regular school culture. The amalgamation of value-based discussion in classes strengthens their emotional and social skills significantly.
Our country can make significant progress only if this policy is dealt with seriously, understanding its benefits in the long run for our dear students across grades. Through the skills of research and innovation, we as schools can make new advancements all over the world and keep pace with them. Although NEP is focussing on corrective changes in schools across India, it will also make India a knowledge hub and consequently ( not immediately) reduce the brain drain from India. Our youth will be able to contribute to the growth of our nation, be able to identify the areas of progress and concern in our country, and aim towards collaborative growth. NEP is also emphasizing aspects such as better infrastructure in schools across the country, innovative education centers, and labs which will help in better learning, efforts to bring back dropouts into the mainstream, and helping them to pursue optional courses to facilitate a completion for them, facilitating multiple pathways to learning among others using various new pedagogic tools and strategies. The concept of replacing the 10+2 structure of school curricula with a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure will benefit the younger children and also assist them in learning the concepts based on their development. NEP will also be focussing on the well-being of the students across the country and will also deal with how to handle this with the help of experts in this field.
There are quite a few initiatives & methodologies that are already integral to CMRNPS, in line with the proposed NEP 2020 policy. A number of them that are integral to our curriculum are: Firstly, more emphasis on Literacy and Numeracy within the first 5 preliminary years of the child’s education. Secondly, moving away from a commitment to memory and having more focus on skill-based learning. Thirdly, we have to understand that today’s learners are different. They think and process information fundamentally differently from the previous generations. Having a 360-degree assessment of our students has become imperative- this includes, portfolio assessment, class participation, notebooks, individual and group activities, and project-based assessments to help our students do research from their end and come to a conclusive decision and represent their learning through their project. This helps them to be more thorough with the concept and can comprehend it way better. Fourthly, NEP is focussing on e-resource learning which we already do by sharing resources with the students online as pre and post-work which helps them to assimilate and understand the concepts at a wider level. Fifthly, NEP is focussing equally on academic and non-academic areas to make the feedback about each child more wholesome and genuine. Sixthly, NEP is looking at providing flexibility to the students in what they want to learn. Our curriculum is also designed in a similar way which encourages students to come up with their expression of answers, reflecting on their learning and there is no single right answer to any question. We encourage students and teachers to be flexible in their thoughts and expression, helping them to come out of the fear of being incorrect. Seventhly, we also promote multi/trans-disciplinary, crosscutting concepts which help students to connect concepts across learning areas and teach them not to learn any subject in isolation. Eighthly, we have also replaced the rote method of learning and the examinations are based on conceptual understanding aiming to develop student’s analytical skills. Ninthly, the curriculum gives both local and global contexts with which the students relate across all learning areas and similar lines have been outlined in the NEP as well. Tenthly, we focus a lot on the well-being of our student community and extend our support to them through our counsellors. Last but not the least, just like the way NEP is looking forward to teacher training, growth, and additional courses, we at our schools already have a strong PD team in place which helps to groom our teachers both personally and professionally through individual and group sessions, online additional courses, building their capacities through constant support and mentoring.
We all have to come together as a community, as a country and bend over backward to have NEP successfully implemented in classrooms. NEP in the coming days will transform teaching-learning practices and we are all excited to embrace it with an open mind!
By, Mrs Swati Soni, Head of School, CMRNPS
