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ROLE OF TEACHERS IN THE NEW EDUCATION POLICY
Last month we read about the E-20 in Education. Today, I would like to begin this blog with a small story. A principal noticed a small group of students from UKG in the school corridor laughing loudly; they were all in a line along with their teacher. She went up to them to see what was happening but stood far from the group so that they wouldn’t ger startled. She observed that the teacher had drawn square boxes on the floor and had written 2’s skip counting starting from 2, 4 and so on in the boxes. The teacher was asking the students to jump and count the 2’s. The students were excited and exuberated at the same time and obliged to the teacher’s instructions. The activity was a great success. After some time, the bell rang; and the students formed a line with a teacher to ger inside their classroom. She congratulated the teacher for planning a wonderful activity for the students and asked the students with much excitement ‘What did you do outside, Students?” The class in unison exclaimed with a huge smile on their face ‘We Jumped!’
In this context, I would like you, as a 21st century facilitator to think and recollect the countless activities you might have planned for the students. Let’s plan the activities to be fun-filled and at the same time focussed on the outcomes. Most of the time we worry about the activity rather than focus on the outcome. One of the brighter aspects of this year 2020 is the NEP (National Education Policy) which has brought the much-needed reform in education in India. The NEP 2020 has rolled the red carpet to expand the horizon of Holistic and multi-disciplinary education upholding the most diverse reform of combinations which a student can opt to learn based on his/her interests.
Similarly, a larger extended role for a teacher has been projected in the NEP 2020. Teachers being one of key stakeholders in education have been recognised to play a major role. This includes focussed teaching strategy, autonomy in aspects of pedagogy and continuous upskill programs for teachers through CPD (Continuous Professional Development).
The previous academic structure of 10, +2 has been revised to 5+3+3+4 as foundational, preparatory, middle and secondary pedagogical and curricular structure respectively. Thus, enabling a student to evolve as a prepared student at every level. This combination will positively influence a renewed pedagogy which starts from ECCE at Foundational level and progresses building the literacy and numeracy skills in students at each level along with multi-disciplinary thinking, experiential learning, critical thinking among many other key 21st century skills.
This upscaling would be a great possibility for passionate teachers to upskill and learn the art of moving away from focussing only on cognitive education to a more pluralistic, character development oriented, creative, holistic, tech-driven and futuristic facilitators. Let’s move along the change to be the change and make the change.