The ICSE Council has been asked to revamp the syllabus for Classes 1 to 8 by the National Child Rights Protection Agency and follow the curriculum prepared by the national or state education councils as it is considered to be less taxing on students.
According to the agency’s order, the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) prescribed syllabus is heavier compared to the syllabus prescribed under the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) of 2005 and has not been endorsed by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) or State Commission for Educational Research and Training (SCERT).
The order stated that the Council has not complied with the Centre’s Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, by following its own prescribed syllabus because as per the legislation, it is mandatory for all education boards to follow a syllabus that is prescribed either by NCERT or the SCERT.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights further added that “…..The CISCE curriculum is much more at the pre-primary, primary and upper primary level than prescribed under NCF, 2005. … In no circumstances, NCERT endorses the curriculum developed by CISCE for their own…”.
“As you may be aware, the NCPCR is a statutory body formed under CPCR Act, 2005, to ensure that children enjoy their rights and look into matters related to children from child rights perspective,” the order says.
CISCE secretary and chief executive, Gerry Arathoon, notified the Metro that the NCPCR order had reached the Council office but it was yet to examine the order by him as he was out of Delhi. He said that the Council would send the reply to the commission once he is back. The CISCE has been asked to revamp its existing curriculum for classes 1 to 8 and a compliance report will have to be sent to the commission within 15 days of the receipt of the order.
However, the CISCE official said that they had already informed the NCPCR before that its syllabus for Class 1 to 8 has been prepared by consulting the experts from the NCERT. Section 29 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, states that the “curriculum and the evaluation procedure for elementary education shall be laid down by an academic authority to be specified by the appropriate Government by notification…”
One of the NCPCR officials said that the NCERT or the SCERT is the sole academic authority for prescribing school syllabus. A detailed examination of the CISCE curriculum has been done before taking the decision to ask the CISCE to “revoke” the syllabus, Priyank Kanoongo, NCPCR chairperson said.
“An inquiry was held to examine the CISCE syllabus for classes I to VIII. The inquiry was held for 18 months. The commission decided on revoking the CISCE syllabus after examining the syllabus thoroughly,” Kanoongo told Metro from Delhi.
All its affiliated schools must follow the prescribed syllabus from nursery till Class 8 from 2018, implemented by CISCE. In the previous system, the curriculum recommended by the Council was uniformly mandatory only from Class 9.
Till 2017, the curriculum followed in all ICSE schools up to Class 8 was prepared by the Inter-State Board for Anglo-Indian Education under the guidance of the NCERT. The NCPCR has also asked the state governments to take necessary action regarding revoking the CISCE curriculum in the ICSE schools located in their states.
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