Decentralization of Education System
The cornerstone of National Education Policy 2020 (NEP2020) is the shift from content to attainment of competencies. The acquisition of age appropriate competencies rather than hard memorization or mugging up content by the modern day learner will lay a strong foundation in the actualization of 21st century skills. These skills are referred as 4Cs (Creativity, Critical thinking, Collaboration and Communication) . The rote learning is now considered as an obsolete concept as it acts as an impediment to prepare students for real life challenges at the global level. Our modern day learners need to be innovators to fix complex real life issues both at the regional and global level and thereby contribute meaningfully in long lasting solutions to the most daunting challenges. To nurture these 21st century skills in the modern day learner, the educators have to redesign their pedagogical skills to remain relevant.
It is inevitable on the part of the teacher to do away with chalk and talk methodology as it is purely a teacher centric approach to a more inclusive and participatory approach were student –centric approach is prioritized. The role of the current era educator is to consider student as an important stakeholder in the classroom culture: where in student’s opinions and views are respected and accommodated. The conducive classroom culture with a strong foundation for experiential or hand-on-learning experience will truly transform the modern era learner from being a mere recipient of black and white information to co-creaters of new knowledge. However this transition is not an easy thing to execute. It needs rigorous brain storming and brushing up of pedagogical skills on the part of the teacher. The demand is for the teacher who is continuously updating and up scaling his pedagogical skills.
There have been endeavours in the past to upscale the professional development of teachers to abreast them with latest trends in teaching –learning methodologies . The erstwhile Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) , now Smagra Shiksha Abhiyaan vigorously focused on capacity building of teachers in different subject domains and has therefore played a catalytic role in the accomplishment of objectives enshrined in the scheme: like universalization of elementary education, retention of the enrolled students thereby curtailing the dropout rate at the primary and middle level, TLM enabled (Teaching–learning Material) classroom transaction. The brainchild of the SSA scheme was the novel intervention of Block Resource Centres and Cluster Resource Centres. These hierarchical learning centres played a wider role to foster threadbare discussion and pondering over hot spots of teaching learning at the zonal and cluster level. The BRCs used to operate at the Zonal level and the CRCs used to operate at the cluster level in an Educational zone.
With the launch of NEP 2020, the domain of education has been further broadened as it strongly advocates in laying the foundation for the holistic development of the child. The policy is aligned to give equal weightage to varied personality domains. A student doing well in academics needs to be equally vibrant in sports and other co-curricular areas. The grade card of the child would not be marks centric only; rather it will be Holistic Progress Card that encompasses 360 degree all-round development of the child. NEP 2020 strongly emphasizes on education system rooted to Indianess: which truly values cultural ethos, religious and linguistic diversity richness of the country. In vogue with NEP 2020 policy, a teacher has to shun the banking model, which considers a child as an empty vessel and filling that vessel with the content, thereby leaving no room for creativity and critical thinking. He has to adapt to a more pragmatic approach of Constructivism: where in child co-constructs new knowledge.
Reinvigoration the Centres:
To actualize the main objectives of NEP 2020, the document has strongly mandated the reinvigoration of Block Resource Centres (BRCs) and Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs). It is a key step to strengthen school governance, update pedagogical skills of teachers and enhance learning outcomes at the grossroots level.
Role of BRCs and CRCs:
BRCs and CRCs are crucial support structures in the decentralization of education system. They have the mandate to provide academic support , teacher training and help implement government education initiatives at the block and cluster levels.
Why to reinvigorate BRCs/CRCs: NEP 2020 emphasizes the need to make these centres more penetrative and effective so that they can:
Act as continuous professional development hubs for teachers.
Facilitate peer learning and mentoring among educators.
Monitor and provide feedback to improve school performance.
Support the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) mission.
Drive community participation and build stronger school-community linkages.
Tail piece: Imparting subject specific capacity building trainings to teachers is the mandate of SCERT (State Council For Educational Research and Trainings) at the apex level and DIETs (District Institute of Education and Trainings) at the district level, but the efficacy of these training capsules is compromised to a certain degree due to lack of effective monitoring mechanism at the grossroots level. This gap can certainly be filled-in by right implementation of the novel intervention of BRCs and CRCs. It is cited nowhere in the policy documents to divert the resource persons of BRCs and CRCs to execute non-academic assignments. The BRCs and CRCs can facilitate teaching-learning at the grassroots level provided they are allowed to perform their duties as per the laid down guidelines. The services of BRCs and CRCs can be effectively employed to provide on-spot academic spot to the teachers at the school level , hand holding of teachers to design lesson plans as per the need of the subject like 4C ( Consider, Clarify, Co-construct and Consider) lesson plan, 5E ( Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate) lesson plan, Inquiry based lesson plan, framing of learning outcomes, conduct SAS (State Achievement Survey), NAS Survey (National Achievement Survey).
To sum it up, BRCs and CRCs can prove to be engine of change to raise the bar of academic standard at the grassroots level and therefore, reviving and strengthening BRCs and CRCs aligns with NEP’s vision to create a robust, locally empowered and learning–focused school ecosystem. In the rest of the country these BRCs and CRCs are working as robust academic centres and it is imperative to replicate the same in Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr. Mushtaq Rather, Educator from Mattan Anantnag, Kashmir.
