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Dr. Joseph Emmanuel, Director Academics of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), delivered an insightful online session on the National Education Policy 2020, its impact, its implementation and the way forward on Friday, November 15, 2023.



A strong proponent of NEP and competency-focused education, Dr. Emmanuel addressed over a thousand educators from schools across India in a highly informative session facilitated by Saamarthya Teachers Training Academy of Research (STTAR).



Laying out the vision of NEP at the outset, he said, "Basically, the NEP focusses on four major areas: Equity, Excellence, Inclusivity and Access. After the launch of NEP, the Indian education system has seen two NCFs – the National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education. These two curricula are aimed at taking ahead the implementation of NEP in a synchronized manner and it should be the aim of all institutions to provide quality education to all children."



Dr. Emmanuel highlighted the major areas of focus for NEP and emphasized the need for a shift to competency-focused teaching and learning, transforming assessments, tracking student progress across school years, holistic development of each child, and standard setting and accreditation.



"Competency focused education is a major area in which CBSE has been working. It involves curricular interventions, pedagogical interventions, assessment reforms, student enrichment activities and development of resource material and capacity building of teachers," Dr. Emmanuel said.



As teachers were the predominant audience of the session, Dr. Emmanuel shared a good number of references to resource material for teachers of all grades and domains to empower their teaching skills. These included samples of pedagogical processes, blueprints and assessment items and rubrics. He strongly advocated the implementation of experiential learning pedagogies like art and sports integrated learning, storytelling, toy-based learning. "Education has to be child-centric and inclusive to ensure individual development. An enabling environment for competency-focussed education can be created through transformation in content, pedagogy, assessments and capacity building," he said. He spoke of SAFAL as an upcoming platform to assess key competencies in students. He stressed upon need to strengthen School Quality Assessment and Assurance (SQAA), as envisioned in NEP, through a framework comprising seven key domains.



Dr. Emmanuel has an experience of 30 years in the field of education. He is leading the implementation of NEP in CBSE schools across India.



The session was managed by STTAR which is a premier teachers training academy with expertise in professional development of educators, curriculum development, research, and school enrichment.



Sushma Raturi, member secretary of STTAR, who hosted the session, said the address by Dr. Joseph Emmanuel is an attempt to educate and create widespread awareness about the implementation of NEP 2020. In fact, some of STTAR's upcoming programmes are deeply aligned with the vision of NEP, including a three-day programme on 'Early Childhood Education As Envisioned in NEP' in September and a National Teachers' Olympiad to provide teachers a country-wide platform to test their competence and have a roadmap for professional development. The Olympiad will be held in December, 2023.