© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
From new social science textbooks that have skipped some key history events, a new National Curriculum Framework for School Education, and updates in the CUET UG, NEET UG applications and more, a lot has happened in the education sector this week.
Let’s take a look at some of they key events of the first week of April:
The Ministry of Education recently released the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF) and is seeking feedback from students, parents, teachers, educators, and other professionals to improve upon the pre-draft of the NCF for School Education (NCF-SE).
In the new framework, an expert panel has suggested that to complete Class 10, students should complete two essential courses from each of the eight curricular areas available, that is, a total of 16 essential courses across two years of Class 9 and 10.
However, the panel has suggested the introduction of semester systems in Class 12 board exams. “Modular Board Examinations will be offered as opposed to a single examination at the end of the year. The final certification will be based on the cumulative result of each of the examinations,” the NCF draft states.
The framework also suggests that students should attend school for five and a half days a week, with Saturdays as a half-day of study, i.e. 29 hours of instruction time per week.
NCERT has released new social science textbooks with the most sweeping changes since the NDA government took charge in 2014. The new books do not have references to the 2002 Gujarat riots, content on the Mughal era and the caste system, and chapters on protests and social movements have been deleted.
Officials have claimed that these changes are the result of a ‘rationalisation’ exercise undertaken by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) last year, aimed at reducing the curriculum load to help students make a ‘speedy recovery’ from learning setbacks suffered during Covid.
The Indian Express had first reported these changes in a three-part series carried from June 18 to 20 last year.
Now, several historians, including those involved in the revision of the previous version of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), have spoken against these deletions. “There has been no attempt to consult members of the teams that had prepared the textbooks, which included historians and school teachers, apart from members of the NCERT. The books were developed through a process of consultation and wide-ranging discussions. This was valuable not only in terms of content, but also in terms of pedagogy,” according to the statement.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) will reopen the registrations for the NEET UG 2023 from April 11 to April 13. Candidates who haven’t registered for the exam can register at the official website — neet.nta.nic.in.
They have also opened the correction window for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG), 2023. Candidates can make corrections in their application forms through the official website — neet.nta.nic.in.
Candidates have time till 11:50 pm on April 10 to make corrections, for which they will have to key in credentials such as application number, password and security pin. MBBS aspirants should remember that they cannot change their name, email address, mobile number and address in their application forms. Candidates whose Aadhaar has been verified can change their parents’ name, category, sub-category, city, medium, qualification and passing year. Those who haven’t verified their Aadhaar, can make changes in the aforementioned options as well as their gender and date of birth in addition.
The Common University Entrance Test Undergraduate (CUET-UG) 2023 application window has been reopened from today and candidates have time till 11:59 pm on April 11 to apply. Candidates can apply through the official website — cuet.samarth.ac.in.
“Following requests from several students, we have decided to re-open the application portal for CUET-UG on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and will close at 11.59 pm on Tuesday (11 April 2023),” the UGC Chief, M Jagadesh Kumar tweeted.
According to the official schedule, the CUET UG 2023 exam will be conducted from May 21 to 31.
The NTA is currently conducting the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2023, which started from April 6 and will conclude on April 15. Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court will hear the plea for the removal of JEE Main 75 per cent eligibility criterion on April 13.
The Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) declared the results for Class 5 at 3 pm on April 6. Students can now check the PSEB Class 5 result at the official website — pseb.ac.in.
This year, the overall pass percentage stood at 99.69 percent. A total of 2,93,847 students appeared for Class 5 exam out of which 2,92,947 cleared the exams.
Girls have fared better than boys as 99.74 percent of the cleared the exam and boys secured an overall pass percentage of 99.65 percent. However, it is the transgender students who have passed with flying colours. A total of 10 transgender students appeared for the exams and all of them passed.
The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad on Friday issued a notice urging parents and students to be careful and not fall into the trap of cyber fraudsters. This warning comes a little before the board is set to announce the board exam results.
Once the results are declared, students will be able to check their score for Class 10, 12 exams on the official website — upmsp.edu.in. This time, the exams were conducted from February 16 onwards, and a total of 31,16,487 candidates appeared for the matric exams this year, according to the data released by the state board.
Last year, the UP board recorded an overall passing percentage of 88.18 percent for Class 10. The passing percentage for boys was 85.25 percent while for girls, it was 91.69 percent.
