The State government will prepare a new curriculum based on the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, but will bear in mind areas of disagreement with the policy, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan said in his policy address on Friday.
The Governor said the curriculum would include both scientific and technical knowledge, and give importance to secularism.
Awareness activities against superstition and for inculcating scientific temper would be included in the curriculum. It would also emphasise protection of constitutional values.
‘Focus school’ project
The government would implement a project ‘Focus school’ to bring schools that do not perform well up to a quality benchmark, Mr. Khan said in the Assembly.
A ‘Model inclusive school’ programme would also be implemented in the 2022-23 financial year. It envisaged strengthening select general schools to function as model centres of inclusive education in specific disabilities. Five specific disabilities - autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, hearing impairment, visual impairment, and specific learning disorder – had been identified to be addressed under the project.
For fitness
To address health problems in children owing to lack of physical exercise during the pandemic, a programme ‘Fitness for future’ would be introduced in schools.
A school at the block level would be converted into a skill development centre on the hub-and-spoke model for acquiring job skill qualifications envisaged by the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) curriculum for higher secondary and vocational students.
Mr. Khan said despite the devastating impact of COVID-19 on contact classes, the government could keep students on the path of learning through digital classes, followed by online classes that enabled teachers and students to communicate real-time.
The challenge of access of all students to digital equipment to avail themselves of the online classes was met through the ‘Vidyakiranam’ project that was supported by philanthropic Keralites.
