Month: July 2020

Education, leadership, school

National Education Policy 2020

A Learning Leader

India’s

New

Education

Policy

2020

:Key points

A full version of National Education Policy 2020NEP 2020

Indian Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020, on Wednesday 29 July 2020, paving way for transformation reforms in school and higher education sector in the country after a long spell of 34 years. The draft of the NEP was panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Kasturirangan and it was submitted to the Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal when he took charge last year. The new NEP replaces the one formulated in 1986.

The new National Education Policy is set to usher in a slew of changes, ranging from reduction in school curriculum to discontinuation of M Phil and so much more. It aims to create an education system that contributes directly to transforming the country, providing high-quality education to all, and making India a global knowledge superpower.

What all we need to know at this stage, as an Educator or school leader in India?

School Education

  1. Foundational Stage (age 3-8 years): learning based on play and active discovery
  2. Preparatory Stage (8-11 years): Building on play and discovery; begin the transition to structured learning
  3. Middle Stage (11-14 years): Learning concepts in subjects; begin navigating to adolescence
  4. Secondary Stage (14-18 years): Preparing for livelihood and higher education; transition to young adulthood.

In this reformed pattern:

  • 3 years of Preschool and rest of the 12 years to maintain continuity in schooling
  • Learning will be in the form of discovery method and experiential learning till Grade 5.
  • Up to grade 5, regional language or mother tongue may be used as a medium of instruction.
  • Subject Introduction and Exploration will be introduced from Grade 6th to 8th
  • Secondary Stage will comprise four years of multidisciplinary study and will build subject depth, critical thinking, attention to life aspirations with flexibility for student to choose for example one may opt for Bakery with Math.
  • Preschool Education will be universalized.
  • A proper curriculum will be made by NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) for Preschool education and teachers will be provided regulated training.
  • School curriculum to be reduced to core concepts and there will integration of vocational education from class 6, under new National Education Policy.
  • The new policy seeks to expand access to higher education for 50% of high school students by 2035, and achieve universal adult literacy before that date.
  • The Policy aims to ensure that every student in Grade 5 and beyond must achieve foundational literacy and numeracy .
  • Teacher to be facilitator- capacity building, a robust curricular framework, learning material – both online and offline, learning outcomes and their measurement indices, assessment techniques, tracking of learning progress, etc. will be designed.
  • Coding will be introduced right from the 6th Grade.
  • Technology will be extensively used for delivering the curriculum.
  • There will not be rigid separation between streams such as Arts, Science, music etc. Curricular and Co- curricular will be taught in the same manner
  • There will be reduction in syllabus because of this it will be easier to focus on the Core Concepts.
  • Students will have 10 bag less days in a year from grade 6th on wards which will be like a mini internship and will be considered part of assessment.
  • Traditional report cards with only 2 dimensions like marks, attendance will be changed to a holistic assessment including:
    • Self Assessment- To increase self awareness and make the students more accountable.
    • Peer Assessment- To imbibe a sense of social obligation and belonging.
    • Teacher Assessment- As it has been done traditionally.
    • The overall assessment will be done with help of Artificial Intelligence which will be a blueprint of child’s learning journey of the all schooling years.

Higher Education

  • If one wishes to drop out and then continue again after a fixed time. An academic credit will be given for every course Taking a break after completing one year then resuming is acceptable under this policy.
  • Like schools, colleges will be multidisciplinary & one can take up subjects of choice along with their majors without losing academic credibility .
  • Common norms to be in place for private and public higher education institutions under Central government’s new Education Policy. “As on date, we have different norms for deemed universities, central universities, for different individual standalone institutions. New Education Policy says that for reasons of quality, norms will be same for all and not as per ownership,” said Amit Khare, Higher Education Secretary.
    • UG Program – 3-4 years
    • PG Program – 1-2 years
    • Integrated Bachelor’s + Master’s – 5 years
    • M Phill discontinued
  • All higher education institutions, except legal and medical colleges, to be governed by single regulator.
  • Common entrance exams to be held for admission to universities and higher education institutions, as per Center’s new Education Policy.

The NEP 2020 aims to increase public spending on education to nearly 6% of gross domestic product from around 4% now, while also capping fees charged by educational institutions.

The National Education Policy provides a broad direction and is not mandatory to follow. Since education is a concurrent subject (both the Center and the state governments can make laws on it), the reforms proposed can only be implemented collaboratively by the Center and the states. This will not happen immediately. The incumbent government has set a target of 2040 to implement the entire policy. Sufficient funding is also crucial; as we have seen in the past that 1968 NEP was hamstrung by a shortage of funds.

All in all its definitely a positive change and we all have to wish for a fast and effective implementation.

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Education, HIndi, short stories, skills

Folktales

A Learning Leader

Storytelling has its own charm in learning and teaching. Native stories make a strong impact, with ease of understanding as they are deep rooted in culture and community. Hindi being my mother tongue never left its space in my heart. I strongly believe that in early childhood teaching in mother tongue is definitely the easiest way to reach to a child’s heart.

Indian folklore has been passed through generations over the centuries, with the words of wisdom which benefit young and old equally. I plan to share these short stories aka folk tales every once in a while to my audience, use them as a warm up activity, lunch break filler, going home time activity or simply read to your own children.

Stories have their own magic.

लघु कथा


“बेकदारांदी दोस्ती, तू क्यों लाई हँस।”

एक बार एक कौवा उड़ते उड़ते एक झील के किनारे आया जहाँ उसने एक हँस को उस झील के निर्मल जल में मोती चुगते हुए देखा और उससे दोस्ती करने की इच्‍छा जताई। हँस का हृदय निर्मल होता है, उसने तुरंत उस कौवे से दोस्‍ती करने की हाँ कर दी। कुछ दिन बीते, दोनों रोजाना घंटों खूब बातें करते करते और हँसते-खेलते अच्‍छे दिन गुजारने लगे। कौवे को अब अपने घर की याद सताने लगी और उसने अपने दोस्‍त हँस को कहा ‘मित्र हँस अब मैं अपने देश जाना चाहता हूँ। कभी तू भी मेरे देश आना।‘ इस पर हँस ने कौवे का निमंत्रण स्वीकार कर लिया और उसके देश आने की हाँ भर दी। 

दिन-पर-दिन बीतने लगे। कुछ दिन बाद हँस अपने मित्र कौवे से मिलने के लिए उड़ते-उड़ते उस देश चला गया जहाँ कौवा रहता था। कौवे ने अपने देश आए हँस को तुरंत पहचान लिया। उसे देख कर बहुत प्रसन्नता व्यक्त की। उसके मन में यह दुराभाव था कि वह हँस का मांस खाए। उसने योजना बनाई कि अब ये मैं हँस मेरे देश में है और मुझे अपना विश्‍वासपात्र दोस्‍त मानता है इसलिए मैं इसका मांस खा सकता हूँ। फिर उसने अपने अन्य साथियों के साथ मिलकर हँस को मार डाला और सभी कौव मिलकर उसे नोच-नोच कर खा गए। बेचारा भोलाभाला निर्मल हृदय का हँस गलत जगह मित्रता करके अपने प्राण गवां बैठा। 

समय के अंतराल में जब हँस वापस नहीं आया तो झील के किनारे रहने वाली हँसिनी ने सोचा चलो मैं अपने हँस को ढूंढ कर लाती हूँ। व्‍यथित मन से उड़ती-उड़ती वो भी पूछते हुए उसी कौव देश चली गई जो उसके हॅंस का दोस्‍त था। उसने वहॉं जाकर देखा कि उसके हँस के पंख और हड्डियां जगह-जगह बिखरे पड़े  थे। हंसिनी ये सब देखकर टूट गई और अत्‍यंत दु:खी हुई और उसके मुख से बरबस निकल गया :

 ‘’बेकदरांदी दोस्ती तू क्यों लाई हँस, गलियां गलियां तेरी हड्डियां रूड़दियाँ, चप्पे-चप्पे पंख’’

अर्थात्

ओ मेरे हँस, तूने बेकदर कौवे से दोस्‍ती क्यों की। तेरे भोले और निर्मल स्‍वभाव के कारण तूने दोस्‍त की मंशा नहीं पहचानी और इस कारण आज गली-गली में तेरी हड्डियां और पंख बिखरे पड़े हैं।   सच है बेकदर इंसान से दोस्‍ती नहीं करनी चाहिए। अपने समान विचार और संस्‍कार वालों से ही दोस्‍ती अच्‍छी होती है, नहीं तो उस भोले, सीधे-सादे हँस की तरह जीवन की हानि भी हो सकती है। कहा भी है – ‘सिंगल पशु से दस कदम और कुत्‍ते से आठ। दुर्जन की संगत बुरी, कदम बचे एक सौ साठ।‘ यानि सींग वाले पशु से दस कदम, कुत्‍ते से आठ कदम और दुर्जन व्‍यक्ति से एक सौ साठ कदम दूर रहना चाहिए। उसकी संगति नहीं करनी चाहिए।

Story Credits:

Mr. Dalchand

A Storyteller by heart

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Education, leadership, skills

Learnability

A Learning Leader

The most essential skill in today’s time is learnability which is the ability to acquire knowledge efficiently and effectively and use it in a meaningful way over and over again.

We as leaders need to bring up learners who are ready to

LEARN UNLEARN RELEARN

The internet and its increasingly wide accessibility, with the high penetration rates of 4G ,5G networks and smart phones in the country, has resulted in knowledge no longer offering the competitive advantage that it once did. It is no longer a differentiator.

Knowledge has become an increasingly ubiquitous commodity, as every information is available a touch away, learnability is increasingly replacing the knowledge in every context, which once was the single most important trait that the younger student need to be inculcated in. In today’s context knowledge is a perishable commodity, what one learns today will be obsolete by a new discovery made tomorrow.

In such a fast pacing era, training children in critical thinking ought to take precedence over spoon feeding them information.

The current education philosophy was designed hundred of years ago for the purpose of retaining knowledge and information. At schools, we feed children information,we expect them to remember that information and test for accuracy at exams. In real, we actually expect our children to become walking encyclopedia memorizing tons of facts and figures. It might have worked in the past because the information once learned was valid over a long period of time but today the older generation is already struggling with the accelerated changes that happen overnight.

While knowledge and the ability to retain that knowledge is by no means completely redundant yet – but the difference between a great career and a mediocre one is often determined by learnability and the skills possessed by the person -not by his knowledge.

In the rapidly changing world, what defines our success is not what we know, but rather, our ability to learn what we don’t know. Being knowledgeable does not imply learnability but the reverse certainly holds true. One could make a child knowledgeable in a chosen field by feeding her a ton of relevant information; but she may not know how to acquire a new knowledge independently.

Give a man a fish and you him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a life time.

This is the high time, we need to look for an education methodology that gives importance to developing creative abilities and skills for practical life over drilling in knowledge. our educational philosophy should priorities learnability, creativity and skill development.

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Education, leadership, skills

Never give up

A Learning Leader

Butterflies are my favorite and the reason is just beyond their beauty and colors.

When you thought the world is about to close over you, it just began and life was more beautiful than ever again.

As a preschool teacher, we have been teaching the famous story of The Hungry Caterpillar for ages every year to every batch.

For those who haven’t got a chance to read this story, The gist of the story is that a tiny caterpillar is born and he starts eating a lot of food over the days which finally starts hurting his stomach being too full and when he is about to give up, he finds himself tightly bundled in his own cocoon, exhausted with pain and efforts, but he gives it a one more try and out comes a big beautiful butterfly with colorful wings flying high in the sky.

Now when we teach this story to the little learners, we have our objectives mostly defined as the child would be able to learn name of the days, numbers, counting, colors and objects etc. and if we wish to add some value education to it we would say the child will be able to learn the importance of healthy food.

But there is deeper meaning to it that I derive , butterfly’s life cycle teaches us an important lesson of life specially to the learning leaders.

A butterfly starts it’s life as a tiny caterpillar who’s only objective is to eat and eat more until it becomes full and then the same food starts hurting it so much, the caterpillar starts building a wall around it in form of cocoon as he feels it’s the end of the world, he is totally cut off from the word for days and just when he cannot bear it anymore, the cocoon starts to break and out comes a beautiful butterfly.

Had that caterpillar has given up to those walls, to the loneliness, to the pain and pressure of growing inside a limited space, he would have never seen the world and the world would have missed a marvel of nature.

So my dear friends,

Be like a butterfly, because just when we feel that the pressure, pain and agony of the world will crush us down, the beautiful dawn and a bright Sun awaits us with a beautiful beginning..

Never give up!

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about me

A tale to tell…

A Learning Leader

A good start is half work done!

It was the January 2020 and the hustle & bustle of life was still on in full swing. After hard work of 2 years, we finally got our Permanent Residency application for Canada approved and got our passport stamped. We were all set to fly to Canada in spring just when Covid-19 happened.

Uncertainty loomed in and the one day lock down on 23rd March 2020 extended to over 3 months, all our plans came to an halt. The uncertainty that encompassed our lives, was not hovering over us only, it has been certainly a tale of almost each household across the world where something or other came to a stand still and plans have got disrupted .The world was never so united and with same consensus any other times in history. Every other issue has taken a back seat for now and amidst all this everyone of us is doing our part in best possible way by….

 Staying home and Staying safe.

Suddenly it became all about family time, me time, cooking and relishing dishes time, revisiting memories and finally the time of finding a resort in our passion and hobbies.

While Social distancing is new normal, Social media is doing its part wholeheartedly to keep that distance minimum. People have been sharing challenges, wisdom, thoughts, ideas and what not..

It has been over a decade since when I had this dream of having an online presence for myself. I believe that the perfect time is when you get started and for me this lockdown has brought the perfect time …

Time for me to start sharing my thoughts..

Everyone of us has a tale to tell or a story to share. Most of the time we just don’t get enough courage to share it to the world. I have gathered my courage today…

We experience we learn…

I wish to share my experiences, my learning and my journey so far professionally, as well personally across places ..

With that little note, I start my journey which is just beautiful the way it is.

May this journey goes on with new learnings and destinations everyday of-course virtually till the pandemic takes it’s own course !

Smiles…

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about me

The Journey Begins

A Learning Leader

THE JOURNEY BEGINS…

Thanks for joining me!

Here, I will be sharing my professional experiences as an educator in different context at different organisations in different settings.

All the learning, teaching and knowledge that I have come across I will be sharing at the place. During this journey, I will need your company because…

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.

— Izaak Walton

Your company will certainly encourage me to write more and share more !

Lets get learning and sharing!

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