NCERT initiates steps to make education child-centered

Hyderabad, July 27 (UNI) National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Department of Elementary Education Head K K Vashishtha today underscored the need for making learning without burden and education child-centred.

Inaugrating an International Workshop on ''quality education for all'', he stressed the need for making assessment methods flexible, and promoting more inclusive learning.

Mr Vashishtha said breaking away from established norms and prevalent teaching practices, the NCERT had come out with its new policy, which was ''sensitive to the needs of children and understands that the ultimate goal of education is to motivate''.

The students should be able to ''connect knowledge to life outside school'' and ''ensure that learning is shifted away from rote methods,''he added.

The Teachers should only play the role of a facilitator for children to lear on their own, he said, adding that teachers should encourage children not just to answer questions, but also to frame questions themselves, and ''plan lessons so that children are challenged to think and not simply repeat what is told to them.'' Speaking on the role of alternative assessment measures in facilitating student learning and raising educational quality in pre and primary education, Prof Jyotsna Pattnaik, Director, Early Childhood Education, California State University, USA said teachers in the USA use alternative assessment measures in their class rooms as they were ''context-based and could be designed appropriately by teachers anywhere in the world.

Prof Sudharshan Khanna, Principal Designer in the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, speaking on the role of toys in early stage of education, said ''we need a holistic understanding of our life and its values in the near future''.

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