The Department of School Education and Literacy and the Department of Women and Child Development have released the Draft Karnataka State Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage for children between three and eight years. With this, Karnataka has become the first state to prepare a State Curriculum Framework for the Foundation Stage (3-8 years) as per the NEP 2020 and NCF 2022.

 

The State Curriculum Framework adapts the National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage released in October 2022 to the Karnataka context. After understanding the comments and responses from stakeholders, practitioners, subject experts and general public, this Curriculum Framework will be finalised and adopted for the use from the 2023-24 academic year.

 

The framework proposes changes in the curriculum of existing practises of ‘Chili pili’ in Anganwadis and ‘Nali Kali’ in 1-3 grades of primary schools, which in turn will influence the way education in the foundational stages (3-8 years) is delivered in the state. 

 

These changes will contribute not just to systemic reforms, but also in effectively improving the quality of early childhood education, says education ministry officials. Some other changes initiated include redesignating anganwadi workers as angadi teachers, adoption of new eligibility norms for new anganwadi staff, establishing 3000+ new Anganwadis etc.

 

The document is available in Kannada and English. 

The framework document elaborates on the following:

• The concept and objectives of the new Foundational stage of School Education.

• The need, rationale and importance of this structural change which consists of the curricular integration, upward continuity, and a smooth transition across the two developmental sub-stages – i.e., 3 to 6 years and 6 to 8 years.

• The objectives, structure, and content of an age/developmentally appropriate and outcome-focused curriculum, within the Foundational stage

• The rationale and curricular implications for the emphasis on play and discovery-based pedagogy as stated in the NCF (2022) for the Foundational stage.

• The systemic reforms required