This decision stems from the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 that calls for ‘an overhaul of the curriculum to make it more engaging and useful for all students’. While the decision to make changes in the syllabus is welcome, the only question that needs to be asked is why did it take such a long time to come to this conclusion? Bringing the school syllabus on par with the current trends is absolutely necessary and cannot be delayed. In fact a gap of ten years between revisions may be too long given the current pace at which technology is changing the world. Five years may be a better timeframe.
Revising the syllabus is also an aspect that has been debated in the past. In August 2017 the Legislative Assembly had discussed upgrading the syllabus and the general feeling among the MLAs was that compared to CBSE and ICSE boards, the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education syllabus is of a low standard and hence students would find it difficult to compete at the professional level. It has been often observed that students from Goa do not fare well at competitive exams, while their peers from other States score higher. The headmasters association had made a similar suggestion of upgrading the syllabus almost simultaneously as the MLAs had discussed this in the Assembly.
We are now in September 2021 and Goa is still following the syllabus of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) that was introduced in 2006. Is this syllabus still relevant in today’s period when knowledge has been changing fast? Some States have amended the NCERT syllabus so as to equip their students to perform better at competitive exams. It is only recently, the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) formed committees which will review the school syllabus based on the National Education Policy framework. Every delay in reforming the education system will hold up the process of creating achievers.
Reforms in the education system have been sought at various points of time in the past but nothing has actually changed. With the introduction of the National Education Policy, will there be a major change in the way that the government looks at education in the State? Or will it merely attempt to meet the mandates of the policy without actually rising to meet the challenges that the policy poses?
Goa needs to hasten the process of change in the education system – not just the syllabi. It has taken the process at a slow pace and this is the reason why students in schools affiliated to Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education are still being taught the syllabus that has been in currency since 2006. While the directorate is now looking at revising the syllabi for subjects like history, geography and language with State-specific focus and this is certainly required, the wider perspective of global changes should not be overlooked. The focus has to be on attaining excellence and if besides revising the syllabus there are other changes that need to be introduced, then they should.
The State’s decision on revising the syllabus is a most welcome sign. It should have been done earlier, but let’s take the positive from it that it is happening. So, will Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education finally jump on to the speeding education bus, instead of standing in the queue and waiting for the bus to slow its pace down for the State? That question may be answered in the months ahead.
