New Education Policy: A paradigm shift from coaching culture to holistic approach of development
BY ADMIN PUBLISHED August 26, 2022, UPDATED January 1, 1970
New education policy has come with good news for those who want to study Chemistry but not Physics, Math or Bio. As the streams like sciences, commerce and humanities are going away from our school system. Now a child will be able to pursue his/her subjects of interest be it history with Chemistry or Accounts with Chemistry or any other set of combinations. Secondly, students will get an environment wherein they will learn ‘How to learn’ not ’What to learn’ through research-based projects and get well equipped with competencies and skills needed for the time to come while contributing towards upliftment of the society.
No clear demarcation between curricular and cocurricular activities will be there. Therefore, all extracurricular activities will become a part of mainstream curriculum only. Just imagine a chemistry classroom where a debate on ‘Green revolution: A Boon or Bane or a’ Role play’ on different states of matter or Colloids is happening. Generally what happens till now is that the students once they enter XII class ,they just ignore all these activities wherein they get lot to explore and go beyond textbooks considering it wastage of time .But now when each and every cocurricular activity will also be assessed and graded ,the students will start preparing themselves enthusiastically and this will remove monotonous culture of classrooms also. Peer Assessments and Self-assessment is also given due importance along with the teacher assessment, which will turn students to be more autonomous learners and teaching practices will be more student centric. Metacognition skills developed will guide the student towards planning and implementation and then student will be more like a reflective thinker not a blind follower of instructions. Focus on formative assessment rather than only summative will bring a paradigm shift from today’s ‘Coaching culture’ to holistic approach towards integrated learning.
As new education policy has suggested to reduce the amount of syllabus, we are hoping the section in which students have to mug up hundreds of chemical equations without logical thinking will be deleted .So rote learning will disappear from the subject and will be replaced by application based and creativity so that the students can come up with great ideas or initiatives as they pass out of schools and enter the field of industries. Lab oriented projects, inquiry based learning and experiential learning through field trips to different industries and virtual labs will become more frequent and regular event in the planning of the subject events. Online digital learning mode of teaching will remain there as blended learning in the coming years.
By Keeping the ‘Citizenship and global Citizens’ at one of the prior objectives of the school education system will lead to discussions in the classrooms with a purpose or learning outcome of broadening the thought process of individuals and making them aware of current global issues /concerns related to their study of explorations.
In nutshell, we are very optimistic with the newly declared education policy. It will change the motive of students coming to school to a great extent and that too in positive way and with holistic approach of learning .The impact will be seen in terms of system thinking, awareness, Inquirer, a sense of accountability and responsibility among the students not only towards nation but globally.
By: Ms. Aparna
Teacher
