Primary and Secondary Education Minister B.C. Nagesh on Wednesday said the Government is prepared to teach as per the early education norms of the National Education Policy (NEP) for Classes I and II in 20,000 schools in the State from the new academic year, which is commencing from May.
Talking to reporters here, Mr. Nagesh said the stress in the early education will be on learning of alphabets and numbers.
“We want to teach it in a natural way and without putting much pressure on children,” he said, and added that they are using the concepts of ‘Nali Kali’ and ‘Chili Pili’ that are already in vogue.
The early education will be done as per the curriculum prescribed by the NEP implementation task force headed by former IAS officer Madan Gopal.
Changes will be made following the visit of the finer curriculum committee of the Union Government, he said. Among the schools where the early education norms will be implemented include the 226 Karnataka Public Schools and also the model government schools.
Training of anganwadi teachers in early education concepts has started in Kalyana Karnataka region and it is being done with the help of Wipro and Tata firms, he said.
On the BEd and DEd courses, Mr. Nagesh said a committee has been set up to bring in changes in conducting these courses to meet the needs of NEP. This committee will also look at closing some teaching institutes, which are among the several abnormal institutes that were set up to fill the earlier requirement of teachers.
Ruling out closing schools following reports of the fourth wave of COVID-19, the Minister said the Education Department took necessary precautionary measures to hold offline classes in schools across the State during the third wave. “We are confident of holding classes with necessary precautions from May 15. If there is a need for any more action, it would be taken during the peak of the fourth wave, likely in August,” he said.
The State Government has effectively handled the first three waves. During the nearly two years of stoppage of offline classes, there has been severe impact on the learning ability of the children. Bridge courses will be held from May 15 to address the issue, he said.
