A webinar on Competency Based Education and Learning Outcomeswas organized by Ministry of Educationunder ShikshakParv Initiative. The session was coordinated by Prof. SunitiSanwal, Head, Department of Elementary Education, NCERT. The experts were Prof. A.K. Rajput, Head Publication Division, NCERT and Mr. SashankaHazarika, National awardee teacher in the year 2017 from Assam. Shikshak Parv is being celebrated by Ministryof Education from 8th September- 25th September, 2020 to felicitate the Teachers and to take New Education Policy 2020 forward.
The concept of Competency Based Education was highlighted by Prof. SunitiSanwal. She said competencyis defined as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes which are observable and measurable and the knowledge thus acquired can be transferred in the real life situations. She highlightedthat after the constructivist approach, the focus has to shift on the development of core knowledge and 21st century skills which leads to holistic development and prepares the child for lifelong learning.
Learning outcomes are competencies which are textbook free and have been developed curricular area and class-wise, Prof. Suniti said. She informed that NCERT notified Learning outcomes for elementary stage in 2017, for secondary stage in 2019 and the development of learningoutcomes for Senior Secondary stage is in progress. She highlighted that the learning outcomes document provides the curricular expectations for each stage of education, the suggestive pedagogical processes and learning outcomes to the acquired in each curricular area at the end of the year. In addition, for elementary stage, posters for classrooms and brochures for parents have also been developed.
Prof. A.K. Rajputhighlighted that the NEP, 2020 has recommended following points onCompetency Based Education and Learning Outcomes:
1.Shift in the focus of Assessment
2. Assessment to be used for optimizing teaching learning process
3. Mathematics and mathematical thinking, data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning to be used,
4. Learning outcomes based examination
5. Teacher training to focus on CBE.
6. Formative and adaptive assessmentincluding assessment“as”, “of”, “for” to be used andlearning to be aligned with the Learning outcomes.
Mr. SashankaHazarika suggested the way forward for competency based education mentioned below:
1. Curriculum Syllabus and teaching material to be presented in an integrated manner.
2. Well planned teacher training to adopt pedagogy for competency based education.
3. Development of parameters and rubrics for assessment
4. Assessment to be based on achievement of competences and learning outcomes.
He also shared that during the COVID- 19 pandemic, how he provided education to children through online mode by developing videos, Whatsapp groups.
