Gender-Neutral Uniforms, Classroom Seating Arrangement

Vijay Garg

Multidisciplinary education at the secondary stage, board examinations twice a year, semester system in Class 12 are among the major proposals in the draft National Curriculum Framework (NCF), released last week, which has emerged as a talking point in the last few days.

However, beyond the weighty suggestions on reshaping the school system through higher-level policy changes, the NCF also contains a series of vital observations and recommendations regarding tweaks at the classroom level from the placement of the blackboard to how principles are to be served tea. Here are some of those clubbed in five categories: 

Draft curriculum document proposes 5.5-day school week, longer periods Class 9 onwards, no assemblies on Saturdays The classroom: According to the NCF, drawn up by a 12-member committee of experts led by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan, making all children sit facing the board conveys a perception that the primary sources of learning are the blackboard and the teacher. Instead, the committee has suggested, a circular, semi-circle or group seating arrangement should be explored. The draft NCF also discourages the practice of making “smarter students” occupy front seats, saying it reinforces who learns and who doesn’t.

“A teacher could also keep a track of how many student’s voices they have heard during the course of one lesson, or over a period of a week. This would give them insights into the students who are not able to participate actively or are having difficulty in expressing themselves and as a result, get excluded,” according to the draft.

School assemblies: The expert committee has also prescribed changes in the way most schools hold their assembly sessions, noting that “a lot can be achieved if this space is utilised properly”. Instead of making assembly sessions “ritualistic and mechanical” exercises, schools should think of innovative ways to make them meaningful, it has said. “Schools must ensure that the assembly does not impose any pressure to perform, or deliver ‘perfect presentations’, and instead should be seen as a process of sharing and learning, accepting flaws, and getting over stage fear by creating a setting that makes all students feel comfortable where no one is judged, insulted, or ridiculed,” says the draft. Among the activities suggested include narration of “real stories of courage and resilience, nishkaam karma and sewa“.

Symbols and hierarchies: Noting that school uniform has a symbolic value, the draft NCF lays emphasis on the colour and the kind of dress chosen as uniform in a school. It adds that one may opt for more traditional, modern or gender-neutral dresses depending on local climate, safety, easy availability, cost-effectiveness. It advocates doing away with practices that establish differences and hierarchies such as making students sit on floor mats and teachers on chairs. “Sometimes, schools practice symbolic representation of hierarchy.

—The Hawk Features