New Delhi: The draft National Curriculum Framework (NCF) has suggested that students will study in schools for only five and a half days a week and every Saturday should be a half day. In this way, every week students will have to study in class for a total of 29 hours. It also recommended that class time be 40 minutes for elementary and secondary schools and 50 minutes from class 9 onwards. The previous NCF, released in 2005, gave schools a lot of flexibility in preparing the timetable of school days and academic year. He only insisted that the school day is of at least six hours and that the duration of each class is at least 45 minutes.
In contrast, the new draft of NCF provides a specific framework for school days and the academic year. This document is now open for public comments. It is suggested that the academic year should consist of at least 180 school days or 34 weeks at all stages of education. The new NCF document is more clear in its suggestions than the 2005 one. It is also said that one of the reasons for the criticism of the old NCF is that it was too large. This made it difficult for states and teachers in general to adopt it.
Experts making the new NCF want the new NCF document to act as direct instruction for teachers. So that they can adopt examples and solutions directly from the document instead of trying to explain the principles of the board. Significantly, NCF is such a document that forms the basis of those changes, which will also be brought into school textbooks. It will also affect the pattern of education and evaluation in the classes. The draft NCF has suggested that board exams be conducted twice a year. There should be a semester system for class 12 exams and students should be given the freedom to pursue a mix of science and humanities. So that the rigid boundaries of arts, commerce, and science can be removed in classes 11 and 12 in school boards.
