The Secondary School Curriculum in Karnataka.Pdf
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The Secondary School Curriculum in Karnataka March 2013 Report of an orientation-cum-analysis workshop held on 18th to 22nd March 2013 at the Regional Institute of Education, Mysore NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING, NEW DELHI THE SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM IN KARNATAKA Report of an orientation-cum-analysis workshop held on 18th to 22nd March 2013 at the Regional Institute of Education, Mysore NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING NEW DELHI March 2013 1 The Programme Team…………. National Coordinator Ranjana Arora RMSA Cell, NIE (NCERT), New Delhi Coordinator V. D. Bhat DE, RIE (NCERT), Mysore Team Members Mathematics B. S. P. Raju DESM, RIE (NCERT), Mysore V. S. Prasad DESM, RIE (NCERT), Mysore Science V. V. Anand DESM, RIE (NCERT), Mysore Manjula P Rao DE, RIE (NCERT), Mysore T. J. Vidyapati DESM, RIE (NCERT), Mysore Satish H. L. DMS, RIE (NCERT), Mysore V. Thangpu DESM, RIE (NCERT), Mysore P R Lalitha (Retd.) DESM, RIE (NCERT), Mysore Languages Prema Raghavan DESSH, RIE (NCERT), Mysore U. Lakshminarayana DE, RIE (NCERT), Mysore Rangaswamy DESSH, RIE (NCERT), Mysore Reddy DESSH, RIE (NCERT), Mysore Shaji DESSH, RIE (NCERT), Mysore Social Sciences Asha KVD Kamath DE, RIE (NCERT), Mysore V. Chandranna DE, RIE (NCERT), Mysore Shivananda C DESSH, RIE (NCERT), Mysore 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This orientation-cum-analysis programme of the Regional Institute of Education, Mysore was undertaken in a rapid implementation mode in less than three months. Upon completion of this programme, the programme team would like to acknowledge the support received from different persons at different levels and for different purposes. It is needless to say that without their support this report would not have been brought out. Prof. Parvin Sinclaire, Director, NCERT, New Delhi for her keen interest, guidance and encouragement provided throughout. Prof. B K Tripathi, Joint Director, NCERT New Delhi for encouragement overall supervision of the programme Prof. D G Rao, Principal, RIE Mysore and Prof. B S Upadhyaya, Head, and the other staff of DEE, RIE Mysore for the administrative support. Dr. Ranjana Arora, Incharge, RMSA Cell, NIE(NCERT), New Delhi and the staff of the RMSA Cell for both academic and administrative inputs. The state level officials of Karnataka namely the Dirctors of DSERT and the Textbook Society for supplying curriculum documents and deputing the experts/officials involved in curriculum development. Dr.TV Somshekhar, State Coordinator, Karnataka for coordination with State Departiment. Ms. Shilpa, Ms. Nimisha Raveendran, and Ms. Sonal, project staff who have worked tirelessly with the Institute faculty and provided all the logistical support. Last but not the least, our sincere thanks to all the officials and experts representing different subject areas who have actively participated in the workshop. The Programme Team 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi had initiated a curriculum reform process in the year 2005 by bringing out the National Curriculum Framework. Several follow-up actions have been taken by the Council to implement the guidelines contained in this document and the States too had initiated on their part actions to reform the state curriculum. The NCERT, through its constituent units organised orientation-cum-analysis workshops for five states. This was implemented for the states of Karnataka and Kerala at the Regional Institute of Education, Mysore. The present effort in the form of an orientation- cum-analysis workshop involving the state functionaries and official stakeholders has two main purposes. Providing a platform for reflection on the appropriateness and sufficiency of curriculum development process followed by the concerned state. Analyzing the curriculum documents and support material such as the State Curriculum Framework, the Syllabi, the Textbooks, the Teachers’ Handbook/Sourcebook/Manual, and the other curricular material. Some important recommendations that emerged in the workshop for Karnataka are Curriculum Development Process 1. The state has a curriculum framework based on which the syllabi and textbooks are developed. However, the process does not include representation of needs and concerns of various stake holders particularly those from the rural, deprived and disadvantaged sections. 2. The documents prepared were not available freely to both for persons from within the department as well as general public. The documents need to be placed on the web site of the concerned department for information and comments of all stakeholders. 3. The curriculum development process to be systematic would require a suitable structure at various levels. The department of curriculum within the state council 4 of educational research and training or the CMDE wing of the DIETs is not structurally involved in the process of curriculum renewal. 4. Out of the various documents connected with the curriculum renewal process available the SCF, the syllabi and other curricular material do not seem to have interlinkages. They do not seem to flow from one another. Karnataka Curriculum Framework 1. There is a need to create a shared vision of school curriculum for the state which is based on the concerns and issues of education in the state. The document presently available does not seem to have such a shared vision for the state. In the absence of such efforts the process of curriculum renewal is largely restricted to the process of textbook renewal. 2. However, the available document could be finalised and made available to all stakeholders. 3. The document needs to take a proper stand with respect to the issues such as inclusiveness, infusion and other contextualisations. 4. Though Karnataka is acclaimed to be the hub of IT activities, there seems to be little integration of ICT into the school curriculum. The efforts at developing subject teacher forums could be discussed and integrating plug points can be worked out. Syllabus 1. In Social Sciences, a separate discussion has to happen over the syllabus for Business Studies or Economics since these are new additions. Efforts must be made to make them relevant to the experiences and needs of students. 2. Aspects of critical pedagogy need to be integrated into the syllabus, the textbooks and the teacher’s handbook. 3. The local issues, by and large, are not represented adequately, sometimes not at all represented in the textbooks. 5 Other curricular material 1. Teachers’ handbook, resource books, students’ workbook, laboratory manuals are either not available are not developed along with the textbooks. It is desirable to supply all these along with the textbooks. Textbooks 1. The books should be made available to the public in open market so that anyone can buy them. The department can also create enough outlets where the books are made available for sale to the general public. 2. The textbooks are still teacher mediated rather than a student learning material aimed at helping learners construct knowledge. 3. The critical pedagogy which is one of the major recommendations of the NCF is largely neglected in the making of the textbook. 4. Use of web material is not explicitly included in any of the textbooks and is left largely to the imagination and initiative of the teacher. Relating textual learning to the ICT initiatives of the state such as Subject Teacher Forum activities and content is desirable. 5. Contents of the textbooks do not seem to address gender stereo types sufficiently. For example in the Social Science Textbook of class IX, the chapter on Population provides data on population growth. This situation could have lent itself to make a comparative study of the male and female population figures in various states and times to generate a discussion on issues such as female feticide. The chapter on Labour and Employment does not make children reflect over gender stereotypes of work done by a home maker. 6. Syllabus can be provided in the textbooks or the teachers’ handbook. 7. The language used needs to have more interactive and personalised narrative. 8. Multi-colour illustrations need to be given. 9. Quality of the paper used could be improved. At present it is 60 gsm map litho which could be improved at least to 70 gsm. 6 10. The content load could be reduced easily by converting explanation into activities to provide experiences. 11. The activities designed in the textbook are not adding to the child’s experiences since they are only suggestions made to the learner in several cases. For example, the child is asked to know more about organic farming. But the experiences gained are neither reflected upon nor assessed. 12. The provision made for assessment is not in keeping with the philosophy and practice of continuous and comprehensive evaluation. Training and creating a support system 1. The training for the new textbooks should be completed before the commencement of the academic year. 2. The CRC interaction meetings could be exploited for discussing the new books. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Executive Summary 4 SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION Background 9 The Curriculum in Context 9 Curriculum Development Process 10 Initiatives taken by the NCERT 11 Purpose of Curriculum Analysis 11 For whom would the analysis be useful? 12 The Procedure followed in the present effort 13 SECTION 2: THE CURRICULUM REFORM PROCESS State Curriculum Framework and the Vision of School Education 14 The Scope of the Reform Process as Envisaged in the State Document 15 General Guidelines for curriculum revision as Stated in the KCF 16 SECTION 3: THE SYLLABI AND CURRICULAR MATERIAL Guidelines for preparing syllabus 19 The Syllabus Preparation Process 20 SECTION 4: THE TEXTBOOKS Guidelines for Textbook Preparation in the State Curriculum Document 24 Some General Facts about Textbook Preparation in Karnataka 26 Overall Findings and Recommendations about Textbooks in Karnataka 27 The Science Textbook 29 The Mathematics Textbook 31 The Social Science Textbook 33 The Languages Textbook 36 SECTION 5: KEY FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 41 References 46 Appendices 47 8 SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION Background In its narrow meaning, curriculum consists of content and examination.