National Curriculum Framework (NCF) is one of the main pillars of the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP).
National Curriculum Framework (NCF) is one of the main pillars of the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP). NCF-Foundation Stage (NCF-FS) was released in October, 2022. NEP defines the Foundational Stage as a single curricular and pedagogical phase that comprises five years of flexible, multilevel, play and activity-based learning for children between 3 and 8 years of age. A symbol of the transformative nature of NCF-FS is NCERT’s Jaadai Pitara (Magic Box), launched along with related Digital Pitara on DIKSHA on 20th February, 2022 by the Hon’ble Minister of Education, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan.
Jaadui Pitara for the Foundational Stage-ECCE
Jaadui Pitara has been developed as an exemplar of content needed in any school for the Foundational Stage. It represents a wide range of useful content and demonstrates the sensibilities (age-appropriate, sensory experience and local) to be kept in mind while developing such content. The Pitara has toys, games, puzzles, puppets, posters, flashcards, story cards, story books, playbooks for students, and teacher handbooks.
Jaadui Pitara -‘learn through play’
The core transformative aspect of NCF-FS is ‘learn through play’. The NCF-FS describes how children at this stage learn best through play – through activity and doing. Children enjoy learning in several ways – talking, listening, using toys, working with material, painting, drawing, singing, dancing, running, and jumping.
To accelerate and amplify the awareness, reach, and impact of the transformative idea of Jaadui Pitara as a symbol of NCF-FS, the MoE and NCERT have decided to release a eJaadui Pitara with the intention of:.
- Increasing awareness of Jaadui Pitara among teachers, parents and communities. Democratising access to content to overcome the limitations of the physical Jaadui Pitara.
Jaadui Pitara -‘Digital Content
The e-Jaadui Pitara will empower diverse digital technologies to complement the physical Jaadui Pitara and enable access through multiple channels- e.g. computers, smartphones, feature phones, television and radio. Leverage the potential of generative AI for relevant content creation and for language translation. Empower existing digital infrastructure to enable and empower the local ecosystem to participate and create content.
In order to showcase and ensure diversity of content from across the country the Ministry of Education is inviting submissions for foundational stage content from State Governments and Union Territories from across India as well as from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and several other organisations working with on and for the foundational stage. To invite and gather diversity of content and to unlock value of expertise to be relevant to local content and context. NCERT has in the past enabled and launched similar programs such as Vidyadaan in 2020 and has also encourage local creation and curation of content Stage Governments, NGOs/corporates/startups/volunteers and other organisations are invited to share relevant digital content for the foundational stage to the Email ID- dikshapmu@teamdiksha.org ncert.diksha@ciet.nic.in diksha.pmu@ciet.nic.in These submitted content pieces will be curated by NCERT and to be made available on the e-Jaadui Pitara, the submitting content providers will receive due acknowledgement for the creator and provider of content and shall be released as NCERT curated content.
Shri Pradhan highlighted that ‘Jadui Pitara’ comprising of playbooks, toys, puzzles, posters, flash cards, story books, worksheets as well as reflecting the local culture, social context and languages is designed to pique curiosity and accommodate the diverse needs of learners in the foundational stage. He also informed that ‘Jadui Pitara’ developed under the National Curriculum Framework is available in 13 Indian languages. It is a giant leap towards enriching the learning-teaching environment and making it more child-centric, lively and joyful for the Amrit Generation as envisioned in the NEP 2020.
The salient points of “Jaadui Pitara” are as follows:-
- CORE transformative aspect of NCF-FS – ‘learn through Play’
- Foundational Stage – ages 3-8- learn best and effectively through Play
- Research from fields as diverse as Neurosciences to Education
- Applies to Class 1 & 2 also (age 6-8) – huge shift – children will learn through play, have fun, and FLN will be addressed.
- Learning and Development in 5 domains: Physical Development, Socio-emotional and Ethical Development, Cognitive Development, Language and Literacy Development, Aesthetic and Cultural Development, Positive Learning Habits has been included as another domain of development at this stage.
To enable play :
- A wide range of resources to be used for learning and teaching NOT only books
- Toys, Puzzles, Puppets
- Posters, Flash cards
- Worksheets and attractive books
- Local environment, context, and community
- Rooted in life, local context and India
- Jaadui Pitara brings all this to life:
- Range of resources
- Flexibility to accommodate variety and local resources
- Fun
National Education Policy 2020
The National Education Policy 2020 envisages 5+3+3+4 curriculum pedagogical structure. The Department of School Education & Literacy under Ministry of Education has constituted a National Steering Committee headed by Prof. K. Kasturirangan to develop the National Curriculum Framework for each of the stages. The NCF for foundational stage (FS) was launched by Ministry of Education on 20th October, 2022 and as per the curriculum framework, NCERT has developed and collected Learning Teaching Material (LTM). Accordingly, “Learning Teaching Material” for foundational stage was launched today using the concept of “Jaadui Pitara”. It is expected to bring NEP and NCF-FS to practice, in the hands of teachers and students.
Resources and References
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