- Call for common curriculum in the interest of common man
- Posted By:
- Tom A.
- Posted On:
- 10-Mar-2011
-
The call for common curriculum in schools across the nation is doing the rounds. Recently a group of bipartisan business leaders, labours and educationists extended their support to this cause as well. Causing quite a stir, it is making everyone sit up and take notice.
This cause, if executed well, would go to the extent of having the same curriculums for subjects such as English, mathematics and social sciences. Along with the common curriculum it would also state guidelines for teachers and administrators to follow so that each and every student gets the same benefits.
This cause is not new, teachers, parents alike have been fighting for the same since a long time now. They want the whole curriculum as well extracurricular activities conducted, to have uniformity. They have come to this decision after a thorough research which studied the education systems across Asia and Europe. However, this change could not be brought about because of the traditional thinkers who feel each state should decide the mode of education to be followed in each and every school.
Those who are in favour of this cause know and understand that getting this in action would take a lot of time because it needs a lot of convincing. Plus it needs more clarity in terms of what is going to be required in a common curriculum, how it should be drafted and how long it will take to materialise.
While they want a common curriculum for the students, they want to make sure the students are going to gain a lot from the same. It needs to be rich in content, raising the bar of education a notch higher. It would of course require a lot of planning for things like daily class planning,
homework, reading material etc. Plus a common curriculum will make sure that every teacher too, is teaching the same thing. However, the major difference will remain in the approach the teachers’ turns to, for teaching her class.
However, at least 50 percent or more would be drafted by the school itself while communities would be contributing the rest. This means the curriculum will be a blend of academics and local culture.
However setting new standards are not enough. In the world where competition is rife, the students need to have an edge. Therefore, everyone is hoping that the new curriculum would offer the edge that the students are lacking now. Students today need to have that edge so that they can deal with the real world sooner and be prepared for the various challenges thrown at them.
The call for common curriculum is very strong and many are worried that because it is causing so much of a stir in the nation, education could get politicized. And politics here would not do much good. It is also causing a lot of hi-end companies, industries to wake up to the cause because sooner or later it would determine the kind of competition that is going to be set in the market.