Implementing NCF 2023 may appear daunting, but truth be told, it need not be painful
A tactical guide for K12 schools to navigate the new national curriculum framework successfully
The morning assembly just ended, and she is now back in her office. She drops her linen scarf on the oakwood coat stand and initiates her forenoon routine, opening the mail left on her desk while having breakfast tea and a couple of oatmeal cookies.
For Malini George, the principal of a popular school located in a quiet neighborhood of central Bangalore, this morning seems nothing particularly interesting. She sifts through a bunch of wedding and birthday invites as well as a couple of brochures from edtech startups claiming how their new product features will 'revolutionize' schooling. And then, something catches her attention.
As she is about to open the curious-looking package, Sridhar, the school's newly-appointed IT administrator, knocks on her door and points at the clock on the wall, reminding her of 'the meeting.'
"Oh yes! I completely forgot it was moved to today. I'll join you all in 10 minutes. Second-floor conference room, right?" Malini responds with a smile, and as the creaky hinge closes the door, the smile disappears in a tick, and her eyes gaze at the ceiling filled with confusion, as yet again, like every other week over the past several months, 'the meeting' will leave her with more questions than answers, and the hours spent in the conference room continue to fail to answer that one portentous question — how to do it the right way?
The NEP-NCF conundrum
When the National Education Policy 2020 was first introduced three years ago, getting hold of the document felt almost festive — after all, I'd been waiting for this moment for about a decade now.
Because a decade ago, I wrote a policy memo to the Ministry of Education as a high schooler about the inadequacies in the K12 system, pointing out how the limited choice of subjects felt highly constraining — it directed students to a narrow set of career paths that were popular at the time and didn't encourage exploring beyond the bounds of assigned textbooks to find new, emerging possibilities.
Personally, I was lucky to have a terrific mentor, my maternal uncle, Dr. Anumakonda Jagadeesh. He was a distinguished scientist known for his contributions to the field of renewable energy — I worked with him after school hours, and that experience exposed me to the fascinating world of science journalism and product design that no one in school made me aware of.
But not every high schooler is lucky to have a Sigma Xi as their uncle, and I believed we needed more of a systemic fix to this problem that potentially had generational implications.
Cut to July 2020, and to my surprise, those decade-old suggestions finally make their way to the new National Education Policy. I was pleased to see the introduction of a new category of subjects, increased focus on making learning more experiential, and elimination of the hard separations between arts and sciences to foster more holistic learner outcomes.
As I read the new policy, a realization dawned upon me — I've been advocating for systemic changes solely from a learner’s point of view.
But now, a new question popped in my mind — how does this policy affect other stakeholders involved in the K12 system, be it the teachers, principals, admin staff, and school leadership?
And more importantly, how does one strategize and successfully execute these necessary yet radical changes without disrupting the well-oiled system that has been perfected over decades and not bring the entire school to a chaotic halt?
NEP 2020 provided limited tactical recommendations on how to implement change management in schools, and now, three years later the National Curriculum Framework 2023 is in effect, it continues to leave some important questions unanswered:
How do schools handle operational uncertainties while introducing new subjects they have no experience with?
How can leadership effectively communicate and convince a diverse set of staff to embrace a new organizational culture without causing loss of morale or even mass exodus?
What will be the financial implications, and how should schools address the increasing costs associated with these changes while dealing with external pressures to not raise the tuition?
These are not easy problems to solve, but the good news is that they're not unique to K12 education.
Over the past few years, I've worked with global teams to help them successfully implement their change management initiatives, where, similar to the K12 space in India, new regulations were introduced overnight with limited tactical guidelines, and in most cases, the whole organizational structure needed a rejig.
So, my goal with this multi-part series is to help you decode the challenges and share effective tactical strategies that will enable you to introduce change initiatives with minimal disruptions.
These essays encapsulate my personal learnings as well as insights from top academicians and change management professionals whom I was fortunate to meet during my time at Boston University and Techstars.
Why this? Why now?
The most significant change introduced by the NCF 2023 is moving away from the philosophy of instructionism which was designed to prepare students for the industrialized economy of the early twentieth century.
A century ago, in a world without communication technology – without phones and the Internet – it was not easy to find someone else who knew the information you needed; you had to know it yourself. Memorizing information was a large part of being educated. (The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences - Third Edition)
The conventional instruction methods that are in use today focus on teaching students to memorize information with a singular metric in mind — to successfully crack exams.
I know this statement might raise eyebrows, and some of you may argue not all teachers focus on that — some genuinely care about improving students' intellectual capabilities. But ask your students what their typical day looks like, and you will hear a bunch of conflicting keywords - after-school tuitions, weekly JEE/NEET mock exams, hyper-competitive peers, academic performance stress, and the list goes on.
Stories like high-school students consuming anti-sleep pills, ending up in hospitals with brain clots, and countless student suicides that spike right before board exams show that the intent of education seems to be distorted and gravely misunderstood, both among students and their parents.
By no means would I blame our schools for this. This systemic flaw was perpetuated by the obsolete education policy, which was, unfortunately, exploited by the market forces, robbing students and good schools of the energy and resources to focus on what really matters.
So, what's the new north star then? In a nutshell, K12 schools are now a sandbox for intellectual exploration, developing the scientific temper of future value creators from India, for the world.
Every single curricular and pedagogical change ties back to this new objective to unshackle K12 education from the baggage of the industrial era and bring it to the technology age.
The shift from the old 10+2 to the new 5+3+3+4 structure, consisting of the Foundational Stage (3 years of pre-school + 2 years in primary school in Grades 1-2), Preparatory Stage (Grades 3-5), Middle Stage (Grades 6-8), and Secondary Stage (Grades 9 and 10 in the first and 11 and 12 in the second phase) have specific considerations for curricular structure, content, pedagogy, and assessments for achieving these new goals of school education.
Moreover, the existing operating model of teaching new content relies on regular sit-down exams as a primary assessment mechanism. This needs an overhaul as well — NCF 2023 expects experiential learning to be the new approach for students to learn through hands-on experiences and reflection, connecting classroom theories to real-world situations.
Experiential learning within each subject, and explorations of relations among different subjects, will be encouraged and emphasized despite the introduction of more specialized subjects and subject teachers.
In school, assessment has mostly become mechanical and routinized. At best, assessment is focused on measuring rote learning of content rather than measuring achievement of Competencies and Learning Outcomes. At worst, assessment is an intimidating process that creates fear and leads to labeling and segregation of students based on the ‘marks’ they have scored in tests and examination (NCF 2023)
The aim is to deprioritize the ongoing standardized testing and introduce formative and summative assessments that contribute to positive learning experiences.
Formative assessments, such as projects, debates, presentations, experiments, investigations, role plays, journals, and portfolios, are low-stakes to track student progress and provide ongoing feedback.
On the other hand, Summative assessments are evaluations that measure what a student has learned at the end of a lesson or a specific period of teaching. These assessments are usually high stakes because they compare a student's performance to a benchmark and have consequences. Some examples of summative assessments are term-end tests, simulations, and writing an academic paper. (NCF 2023)
In Project-Based Learning (PBL), students work to solve real, meaningful problems that are important to them, and they work on those problems in the same way that professionals do. A PBL classroom allows students to explore phenomena, investigate questions, discuss their ideas, engage in disciplinary practices, challenge the ideas of others, and try out new ideas.
Research provides compelling evidence of the value of PBL in all subjects in promoting student engagement, improving academic learning, and enhancing social emotional learning. In particular, PBL has been shown to promote science learning and social and emotional learning for all students, including students who historically have not had access to STEM careers. PBL can equip all students with the intellectual capabilities necessary to understand their world and solve problems. (The Cambridge Handbook of The Learning Sciences - Third Edition)
The second important change is that schools are now expected to offer greater flexibility and broader choice of subjects to their middle and secondary-stage students. The traditional practice of segregating students into different streams is no longer relevant, and there will be no hard separation between curricular or extracurricular, nor between arts, humanities, and sciences, or between vocational or academic streams (NEP 2020).
The challenge is that most schools lack the experience to navigate this radical change. Do we now expect schools to no longer have sections, and students can hop in and hop out of classes as they deem fit? How does one coordinate and manage capacity based on evolving demands for both existing and new subjects?
The third change is the need for continuous professional development for teachers. Owing to technological advancements, teachers are now expected to stay up to date with pedagogy delivery, evaluation strategies, and digital teaching tools.
Schools are now expected to offer learning programs to their teachers, and this may become another challenge as several schools lack the required expertise to initiate and manage such programs.
Also, collaboration among teachers from different schools can lead to the sharing of best practices and novel ideas that can raise the quality of student outcomes. However, effective cross-school collaboration might be difficult as it requires strong leadership and cooperation between schools that might have conflicting interests.
As you can see, if the changes are not effectively communicated and implemented, they can inadvertently create a toxic culture where every stakeholder prioritizes and protects their own interests. This can cause a breakdown of trust within the organization, ultimately derailing the whole change management process.
And the magic potion is …
The short answer — change one variable at a time.
And, over the next set of essays, my goal is to introduce change management for K12 schools in phases so that you can start executing it the right way without disrupting your everyday operations.
First, we explore how technology-driven change management can be an effective way forward to tackle a novel challenge, i.e., introducing skill subjects. This will include identifying which new subjects to begin with, finding the right teaching talent, and investing in relevant digital tools and physical infrastructure to deliver a superior learning experience.
The intent is to ensure we don't overwhelm those impacted by these changes and implement strategies that lead to wider acceptance at an organizational level, all while fostering psychological safety across stakeholders.
Alright! That's all for now. Until next time :)
PS: In case you're new here, we have started an exclusive community for school teachers and administrators where you can share your feedback and let me know what topics you'd like me to cover next.