Soon, it will not be mandatory to study English in Mumbai's junior colleges

Mumbai: Schools and junior colleges following the state board must brace themselves for extensive changes in their curricula in future – chief among them is that the study of English will no longer be mandatory in junior colleges; the subject has been listed in the category of foreign languages.

Students of classes 11 and 12 (or junior college) will have to choose two languages – a native and a foreign language. Currently, they opt out of a second language by choosing a bifocal subject such as computer science or banking. The new draft proposal eliminates this provision.

This and other proposed changes, by the school education department, are part of the new draft State Curriculum Framework for School Education (SCF-SE), which outlines a flexible subject plan for higher secondary students. It includes two languages, four electives and two mandatory subjects. The curriculum has been designed to encourage schools to offer a wide array of subjects, allowing students a flexibility to study across traditional arts, science and commerce streams, said a board official.

The State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) released the draft SCF-SE for public feedback on Thursday.

“The concept of streams like arts, science and commerce will no longer remain in the school education system. This will put an end to discriminatory attitudes of society towards students who study certain subjects,” said Mahendra Ganpule, education expert and a retired mathematics teacher.

The SCF-SE has been developed following the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE), released by the union ministry of education in August last year.

As per the draft, elective subjects in the new framework are divided into three groups which includes science, commerce and management; social sciences, art education and vocational education; mathematics, computational thinking and interdisciplinary areas.

Students must study at least four subjects from at least two of these groups. Junior colleges are expected to start offering subjects from at least two of these groups immediately and expand to all four groups in the next five years. It is recommended to offer all subjects listed in the draft framework within the next 10 years.

The draft framework, which will be introduced from classes 3 to 12, aims to align with the National Education Policy (NEP). The state education department has already approved new curricula for the Foundational Stage (pre-school and grades 1 and 2), which will be introduced in the academic year 2025-26. (See box.)

The state’s framework differs slightly from the national plan. In the NCF-SE, science and mathematics are grouped together, while art, physical, and vocational education are combined in another group. Interdisciplinary areas are paired with humanities and social sciences.

While criticizing the draft Vasant Kalpande, former education director said, “The proposal does not follow basic rules of drafting which included different terminology seen in the draft for a single concept – it leads to confusion while reading. Overall, this is not a studied draft – it has come out in a hurry and missed many concepts of the NEP as well as NCF.”

Changes in curriculum

Students of classes 11 and 12 will have two extra subjects to study (up from the existing six). The additional reads will be two languages – an Indian and foreign. Of the eight subjects, students will study four electives of their choice, along with two compulsory subjects -- environmental and physical education.

Inclusion of IKS: Study of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) will be mandatory for classes 3-12, where students will learn about lives and concepts propounded by Indian scholars in mathematics and medical sciences, and sages in yoga. Other inclusions are farming, animal husbandry, Indian festivals, technology, engineering, astronomy among others.

There is a proposal to merge history, civics, and geography into a common subject named sociology for classes 6 to 8. There will also be two new subjects -- art education and pre-vocational skills.

Additional inclusions for classes 9 and 10 are a study of personalities who have brought about social changes and environmental education respectively. Students of these classes study 7 subjects, which in future will increase to 10.