Article on School Curriculum
School Curriculum and Student Concerns
Formal education in India allows for minimal changes and that too in the course curriculum or textbooks. For decades the popular education system continues to be unaltered, as the directives that come from some apex institutions have to be religiously followed. That makes the whole educational system rigid and hinders the growth and development of the student.
In the rapidly evolving technological era, a decade is a large time frame. The life style, the human conditions, the living environment can witness a great deal of changes. In order to cope up with the changing environment, other institutions have to allow provisions for these changes. The same applies for our education system also.
In the present era, we need the citizens who are more responsible, citizens who understand the gravity of such problems like global warming, pollution, depleting resources, experts who can go beyond nano technology and microeconomics, we need citizens who can contribute to the overall development of the society. This can only happen when the curriculum is designed to promote these concepts.
Often students are not happy with the curriculum. Most of the things taught happen to be too generic, which are of little help in any stage of life. Some of the concerns students share because of inappropriate curriculum are as:
• Information based curriculum
Many students share this concern that the school curriculum lays too much emphasis on information assimilation, rather than knowledge gathering.
• The age old content
The approved content is outdated and has little relevance in the present times.
• Meagre provisions for extra curricular activities
Though some educational institutes or popular schools do make adequate provisions to include extra curricular activities, still not much is done on this front.
• Conventional approaches
The curriculum also does not support new methods or methodologies of teaching. At times the teacher may come up with an unorthodox idea or solution to make the students learn new lessons, but there is very little he/she can do owing to the rigid nature of school curriculum.
These are some commonly found concerns that hinder the students from receiving the kind of education they need.