2. Curriculum can be defined as totality of experiences
that a child should get for the optimum growth and
development of the potential endowed in that child. All
the curriculum frameworks, especially the National
Curriculum Framework for Secondary Education
(NCFSE, 2000) and the National Curriculum Framework
(NCF, 2005) have emphasized that the pluralistic
nature of Indian society needs to be reflected in the
pedagogical approaches since there is no one universal
way in which learners learn. The NCFSE (2000) brought
out by NCERT stressed the importance of a constructive
paradigm and viewed the child as a constructor of
knowledge and has re-emphasised the active role
children have to play in processing the knowledge.
3. Curriculum development is defined as planned, a
purposeful, progressive, and systematic process to
create positive improvements in the educational
system. Every time there are changes or
developments happening around the world, the
school curricula are affected. There is a need to
update them to address the society’s needs.
4. Contextualized curriculum:
Contextualising the curriculum carried out with the aim of
situating learning in the context of the child by fading the
boundary between textbook and the local environment of the
child
To contextualize curriculum, teachers use authentic materials,
activities, interests, issues and needs from learners’ lives to
develop classroom instruction. Contextualized curriculum helps
students learn language skills by teaching the skills using the
authentic contexts in which students must use those skills in the
real world.
NCF 2005 It further elaborates the significance of
contextualising education: of situating learning in the context of the
child’s world (p: 30). So at the primary stage,the child should be
engaged in joyfully exploring the world around and harmonizing
with it (p: 48). Stress must be laid on access to locally developed
discourses and texts. The document stresses the idea that learning
and knowledge gets its significance only in child’s community and
5. A curriculum becomes more meaningful when
the local issues are reflected well in the learning
materials and the lessons. Therefore, it’s an
approach to learning that responds to local
needs, allowing learners to learn more about, and
build awareness about those natural resources
and environmental issues that directly affect
them. Making this their focus stress must be put
on the need to localise knowledge and
curriculum practices
6. A good curriculum helps students learn,
practice and evaluate specific skills and
competencies, and contextualized lessons
are effective tools for accomplishing this.
An effective curriculum also elicits
students’ experiences and knowledge,
and affirms and builds on them. Finally, it
should create room for students to pose
problems and issues and develop
strategies together for addressing them.
7. The process for contextualizing curriculum includes
these steps:
1. Identify learners’ needs, issues and themes.
2. Gather information and materials.
3. Create and teach lessons; practice skills in the
classroom. “Chunk” and sequence material. Adapt
authentic materials if needed.
4. Put new skills into action in the real world.
5. Reflect on and evaluate the contextualized lessons.
6. Revise and add new information.
8. All citizens of India should have equal access to education. The
specific needs of the disadvantaged sections of the society ought to
be met through the curriculum;
Education regarding India’s cultural heritage needs to be imparted
to students in order to develop national identity and a spirit of
togetherness;
It is essential to impart knowledge of the citizens’ duties and rights,
and ideals of the Constitution of India to children; l In view of the
erosion of values, it is imperative through the curriculum to
inculcate moral and social values amongst students;
Besides national identity and unity, it is also imperative to develop
international understanding through the curriculum;
Protection of the environment and conservation of natural
resources should be major objectives of school curriculum;
In view of the increasing population of the country, it is imperative
to include suitable content relating to population education in the
syllabi of different subjects;
9. The curriculum should aim at preparing a child for life, which means
that relevant knowledge should be imparted and appropriate skills,
competencies and values developed;
Education plays a significant role in national development by
increasing human resources. Therefore, the primary objective of the
curriculum ought to be total development of the child’s personality;
All the processes of education should be child-centred, with the teacher
playing the role of a facilitator during the process of learning;
The curriculum should aim at developing students’ creative potential;
The curriculum should develop a scientific approach amongst
students;
Work should not be considered as distinct from education. Instead ,
work should be adopted as a medium for imparting education;
The process of evaluation should be continuous and comprehensive;
Media and educational technology ought to be employed to make the
transactions of curriculum effective
10. Contextualisation of learning occurs when the content of
the curriculum, and the methods and materials associated
with it, are related directly to the experience and
environment of the learner. In many schools in developing
countries, most learners have direct experience of natural
resources, either as a result of their own activities, or from
observation in their immediate surroundings. A
Agricultural or environmental topics used as media for
contextualising education can provide avenues through
which children can have repeated experiences which help
them to master skills. Agriculture and the local
environment can be the basis of integrated projects
incorporated in the school curriculum, with academic
activities chosen for their locally relevant, experimental
attributes
12. Contextualisation can, in theory, enable the learner to link
the learning experiences in these three environments. The
teacher, by contextualising teaching and learning can
facilitate this process. From the research findings, it
becomes clear that this does happen.
Parental support for their children's schooling is an
important factor; parents in rural communities seem to
find it easier to understand what their children are
learning when it is based in a context with which the
parents themselves are familiar. They feel able to talk to
their children and are not embarrassed by their apparent
ignorance of "school knowledge" if the learning, even that
centred around abstract concepts, is familiar to them.
14. Contextualisation of content and pedagogy using locally available
natural resources offers encouraging options to improve the
relevance of education. It can also contribute to the development of
skills and competencies, especially in the areas of agricultural
production and environmental sustainability. Useful skills in these
areas include problem-solving, planning, management, social,
negotiation, facilitation, and critical thinking. Not all of these skills
will be addressed directly through contextualisation in primary and
secondary education, but contextualisation can lay a foundation
which will allow these skills to be developed through non-formal,
informal and further education. Indeed, qualitative skills reflect
more than just formal schooling, and include family input, cultural
norms, health and other factors (Hanushek, 2005).
15. With these points in mind, it is suggested here that the following
areas are worthy of research and intervention:
· Encouragement and facilitation of the development of
educational practices (teaching and learning strategies,
development of learning materials, assessment and evaluation
procedures, curriculum development), which value and take into
account the knowledge, experience and culture of members of
schools and the wider community
· Provision of training and support for teachers and trainers in
rural primary schools and in the local community who will base
strategies for teaching and learning on a process of
contextualisation
· Evaluation of the impact of contextualised learning on the
development of knowledge, skills and attitudes of learners, in
schools and in the wider community
· Evaluation of the impact of contextualised learning on
community productivity levels, employment, and on academic
progression of learners and teachers;
