Maharashtra: New Curriculum Framework For Foundational Years From This Academic Year

Mumbai: Maharashtra is looking to put in place a new curriculum framework for foundational stage, which include three years of pre-schooling and classes 1 and 2, in line with the new National Curriculum Framework-Foundational Stage (NCF-FS). This National Education Policy (NEP)-aligned framework could be brought to classrooms in the current academic year itself.

In its first act, the state's steering committee for implementing the new policy at schools formed a sub-committee of 13 experts to prepare the State Curriculum Framework (SCF) for the earliest level of education, corresponding to the children aged from 3 to 8. The panel is asked to submit its draft in the first week of October.

Deepak Kesarkar, the state School Education Minister and head of the steering committee, said, "The work of preparing SCF should be completed in a planned manner and the new curriculum should be made available to students at pre-primary level in the current academic year. The state framework should be prepared on the basis of the curriculum approved by the Central government. The children entering the schools for the first time should be taught in a simple manner using colours, shapes and numbers."

The government also plans to prepare the new SCF for school education. As provided in NEP, this framework will be divided in three stages - classes 3 to 5, 6 to 8 and 9 to 12.