Lok Sabha Question No. 3143 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-20
Subject: Prime Minister’s Research Fellow
Ministry: Education
Asked by: T.N. Prathapan, Dean Kuriakose

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3143

## ANSWERED ON 20/03/2023

## Education for Children Age Group 3 to 8 under NCF

3143. SHRI ASADUDDIN OWAISI:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has unveiled the first National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for 3-8 years age group children;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c)  whether  Anganwadis  focus  on  nutrition  of  the  children  while  play  school  system  by  private players has been unrecognized;

(d) if so, whether this system will be formal school system for children of the age group of 3-8 years;

(e) the main idea behind this and to what extent this system is likely to develop physical, mental and other skill development in other fields for these children; and

(f) the time by which it is likely to start all over the country?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SMT ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a) & (b) As a follow-up of the National Education Policy 2020, National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage for 3-8 years age group children has been brought out by NCERT under the guidance of National Steering Committee for NCF, involving  an extensive consultative process with States & UTs upto grass root level and various institutions and organisations. The NCF for Foundational Stage was released on 20th Oct 2022 at New Delhi.

The National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage (NCFFS) is the first ever integrated Curriculum Framework for children between ages 3-8 in India. The NCF for Foundational Stage envisions an integrated approach to Early Childhood Care and Education for children between ages 3-8 years.As articulated in NEP 2020, it uses 'play,' at the core of the conceptual, operational, and transactional approaches to curriculum organization, pedagogy, time and content organization, and the overall experience of the child. Some transformative ideas for implementation of quality school education  are  included  in  the  Framework,  which  are-  toy-based  pedagogy,  play  as  the  core  of teaching-learning process, lifestyle  for  environment,  learning  about  the  external  world  and  one's inner  reality  and  self,  addressing  variations  in  the  trajectories  of  learning  by  re-imagining  the Learning Outcomes based on the specificities of the socio-cultural contexts, individual children, the materials and resources available, and contingencies in the classroom, etc.

The  framework  has  provided  for  stimulating  experiences  for  the  child's  development  in  all dimensions - cognitive, social-emotional, and physical, to enable the achievement of Foundational Literacy  and  Numeracy  for  all  children  with  age-appropriate  strategies.  Rootedness  in  Indian traditions, modern research and emphasis on the crucial role played by families and communities at this stage, are critical elements of the NCF-FS.

Based on theaccumulated insights from thepractice of Early Childhood Care and Education, and the wisdom and knowledge from diverse Indian traditions ,  this NCF aims to be understandable and relatable  to,  and  usable  by,  practitioners  of  education,  including  Teachers  and  other  educators, school leaders, and functionaries of the education system such as project officers, cluster and block resource persons, block education officers, teacher educators, examination boards, and curriculum/syllabus/textbook development teams.

This  Foundational  Stage  framework  will  guide  the  preparation  of  the  Teachers  for  this  Stage  of education.NCF\_FS will support the implementation NEP 2020 perspectives for Early Childhood Care and Education and strengthen its linkages with the preparatory, middle and secondary stages, as  per  the  5+3+3+4  pedagogical  and  curricular  structure,    leading  to  holistic  development  of  a child.It  will  be  helpful  in  strengthening  foundational  literary  and  numeracy.It  will  be  helpful  in bringing teachers, parents and community to work together to provide children at this stage high quality education.

(c) & (d) Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a government program in India which provides  through  Anganwadi  centres  nutritional  meals,  preschool  education,  primary  healthcare, immunization,  health  check-up  and  referral  services  to  children  under  6  years  of  age  and  their mothers. Details of ICDS are available on the given link: http://icds-wcd.nic.in/

The NEP 2020 in its para 1.4 stresses on ensuring universal access to high-quality ECCE across the country in a phased manner with special attention and priority to districts and locations that  are  particularly  socio-economically  disadvantaged.  ECCE  shall  be  delivered  through  a significantly expanded and strengthened system of early-childhood education institutions consisting of (a) standalone Anganwadis; (b) Anganwadis co-located with primary schools; (c) preprimary  schools/sections  covering  at  least  age  5  to  6  years  co-located  with  existing  primary schools; and (d) stand-alone pre-schools throughworkers/teachers specially trained in the curriculum and pedagogy of ECCE. National Initiative for School Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) training programmes in FLN and ECCE are being run to train teachers across the country.

(e)    NCF FS is a direct outcome of the 5+3+3+4 curricular and pedagogical structure that NEP 2020 has come out with for School Education.  It is based on cutting-edge research from across the world in multiple disciplines which includes among other things better understanding in the fields of neurosciences, brain study, and cognitive sciences which emphasize the importance of nurturing the human mind in early childhood as thisis the stage when the most rapid development of the brain takes place. Appropriate care and stimulation in a child's early years is critical to promote sustained and healthy development across all dimensions-physical, cognitive and socio-emotional. The NCF provides the interested reader a reasonable understanding of what education should look like in our new  vision  for  schools,  and  why,  and  what  role  individuals  could  play  as  parents,  community members, and citizens of India, who all have a large stake in Indian education.

(f) As  per  National  Education  Policy  (NEP)  2020,  implementation  of  the  Policy  requires multiple initiatives and actions, which are to be taken up in a synchronized and systematic manner, by  multiple  bodies  including  Ministry  of  Education,  State/UT  Governments,  NTA,  NCERT, SCERTs, schools and HEIs. The policy provides different timelines for important themes/sub-sets as well as principles and methodology for its implementation. Further, in pursuance of the goals and objectives of the NEP 2020 and to assist States, UTs and other organisations in this task, the Department  of  School  Education  &  Literacy  has  developed  an  indicative  and  suggestive  NEP Implementation  Plan  for  School  Education,  'Students'  and  'Teachers'  Holistic  Advancement through Quality Education (SARTHAQ)'. The major focus of SARTHAQ is to define activities in such a manner which clearly delineate goals, outcomes and timeframe i.e., it links recommendations  of  NEP  with  297  Tasks  along  with  responsible  agencies,  timelines  and  304 outputs of these tasks. With regard to NCF-FS, orientation and capacity building of the States and UTs  are  being  done  by  the  NCERT.  Many  states  and  UTs  have  initiated  contexualisation  and translation of NCF-FS for their own contexts.

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