Indian Education Repository

NCF aimed to reduce the burden on children and move away from rote learning through the 5 proposed guiding principles for curriculum development: (i) connecting knowledge to life outside the school; (ii) ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods; (iii) enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks; (iv) making examinations more flexible and integrating them with classroom life; and (v) nurturing an overriding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic polity of the country. It aims for more professional planning of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) to enable children to build their own process of learning through critical perspective and connecting to the local. The larger education structure and the focus on subjects such as language, mathematics and social science (earlier environmental sciences) are constant while more focus is given to extracurriculars through arts, physical education, and health disciplines with components such as activities for peace awareness. A new feature in this curriculum is the chapter on school and classroom environment where teacher autonomy and professional independence is discussed briefly.