Quality and prosperity is the slogan of India to become an advanced country. Quality can be achieved by the application of skills as well. Mere teaching the curricula does not help cure the problems; instead, the knowledge and skill have to be applied in real-life situations. The Delhi government led by Arvind Kejriwal launched new assessment guidelines under which students of classes from 3-8 will be assessed in Happiness and Deshbhakti curricula. Similarly, the students of Classes from 9 to Class 11 will be assessed for Deshbhakti and Entrepreneurship curricula. The Deshbhakti Curriculum launched in September 2021 seeks to inculcate among the students a sense of love and pride for the country. Every student is made aware of their responsibilities and duties towards the nation. The Entrepreneurship Mindset Curriculum was launched in July 2019 to equip students to take charge of their career paths and become job providers instead of job seekers.
The guidelines relating to new curricula will be introduced in Delhi government schools. The Education Minister of government said that no evaluation or examination will be conducted on these programs. Students will be assessed, along with other scholastic subjects, for the impact on their behavior, as part of evaluation norms. Further under the new guidelines, the students will not be evaluated on the basis of their curricular knowledge, but on their ability to apply their understanding in a variety of real-life situations. No weightage of marks obtained will be calculated for the promotion of a student to the next higher class. Question papers on these will be based on the application of the concepts in real-life/ unfamiliar situations.
The new assessment standards will also motivate the students to contribute to society’s advancement and face challenges of the real world driven by information and technology. The competency-based learning helps students to maximize their innate potential. The government is keen on getting rid of the need for rote learning, he said.
Holistic education was introduced in July 2018 in all government schools in Delhi. The Happiness Curriculum attempts to build emotional resilience in children in a holistic manner. Its main objective is to develop the skills of critical thinking and inquiry in children while also empowering them to express themselves independently and creatively.
Karnataka can contemplate adopting the best practice followed by Delhi. The officials in the department should be pressed in to research the best practice in education either followed in other states or other countries. If the government feels that the proposal is fit for implementation, it can go ahead.