2 December 2000

A BOLD ATTEMPT TO CHANGE INDIAN EDUCATION SYTEM

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: "India's Curriculum of Tomorrow" or ICOT. That is how the new system of learning for school education has been enchristened for the launch from the industrial town of Faridabad near Delhi on December 3.

It promises to provide a set of detailed, graded standards from Class I to XII that develops learners' higher order thinking skills, a strong sense of values and pride in Indian culture. It is sought to be introduced in phases in three years, first for classes I to V in the first year, then to classes VI to VII and finally for Class IX to XII.

Jiva Institute, a research organisation based in Faridabad, has taken up the task of creating this new curriculum that fosters real learning instead of the existing system of memorisation for passing exams. It says ICOT is being developed keeping in mind the new curricular recommendations made by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

It has lined up former Union Minister and Jammu and Kashmir ex-ruler Dr karan Singh, film actor Shammi Kapoor, Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh, Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal, UNESCO Director Prof. Moegiadi and Olympic medallist Malleshwari to grace the launch of ICOT on Sunday.

Young American educationist Steven Rudolph, who is the brain behind the whole venture as Jiva Education Director, says: "ICOT will fulfil the mandates by the NCERT/CBSE, and will even go beyond it. According to Steve, ICOT incorporates value education as the central component of the entire curriculum -- not just an adjunct subject. Further it will foster thinking skills, learning skills and Information Technology (IT) as a tool.

Steve contends: "Not only will students be able to pass their board exams, but they will do so more efficiently, and will also come away with a slew of additional skills."

Through ICOT, he promises to develop new textbooks for all subjects and all classes that are more friendly and interactive than existing books. Besides, he also has plans to develop a free bank of educational software.

Jiva Institute is already known in several states for creating innovative curricula for IT in schools and these curricula and materials have been adopted by the states like Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. According to Steve, Jiva's IT curriculum has already helped over a lakh students in over 250 schools all over the country.

He says ICOT was actually an extension of the success Jiva Institute has found in spread of the IT education through its seven years of hard labour.

Asked if ICOT was different from so many education commissions set up by the Centre and various states without any significant change, Steve says it would revolutionise and change the system itself from the present teacher-centred system of education to a learning-centered system that prepares students for a society of knowledge.

"What India needs now is not just programmers who can be exported, but rather multi-skilled workers who can stay in India and build the nation," says the ICOT programme backgrounder.

ICOT seeks to focus on issues like:

-- higher order thinking skills, such as creativity, problem solving, decision making, discrimination, resource management and so on;

-- multiple intelligences beyond just mathematic and linguistic intelligence, including spatial, musical, interpersonal, bodily, etc;

-- affective and emotional areas;

-- values and ethics;

-- meta-skills of learning to learn how to put theory into practice and the IT skills.

Among the values set by Jiva Institute to inculcate in the future generation by liberating education are: patriotism, sense of duty, character, family values, emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, environmental awareness, punctuality, work ethic, quality, problem solving, decision making, creative thinking, teamwork, civic sense, learning to learn, resource management, awareness of rights, visualisation. END