Uttar Pradesh Affairs
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet led by CMYogi Adityanathgreen flagged setting up of a UPNatural Farming Board– in a move that could help state abate relentless use of chemical fertilizers leading to deterioration of soil quality.
The objective of the board — proposed to be headquartered in Lucknow — will be to enable the spread of natural farming in the state, besides continuous guidance to the farmers on the subject. As a matter of fact, such boards exist in various other states which were studied by the UP government before a proposal was moved for cabinet clearance. The step resonates with the PM Narendra Modis call for promoting natural farming.
The board will be responsible for policy formulation and guidance will be given at the state level by the governing body and the plan will be reviewed. The state level executive committee will be constituted under the chairmanship of the chief secretary to ensure compliance with the instructions of the governing body.
National and International Affairs
Government launches National Curriculum Framework for education of children aged 3-8 years
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday launched the National Curriculum Framework for foundational stage education of children in the three to eight years age group.
Early childhood care and education are key areas of development, according to the 2022 framework.
The NCF-2022 has four sections the National Curriculum Framework for School Education, the National Curriculum Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education, the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education and the National Curriculum Framework for Adult Education.
Research from across the world on education, neuroscience and economics demonstrates clearly that ensuring free, accessible, high quality early childhood care and education is perhaps the very best that any country can make for its future, according to the NCF for foundational stage.
The framework has listed the panchakosha concept for education of children and its five parts are physical development (sharirik vikas), development of life energy (pranik vikas), emotional and mental development (manasik vikas), intellectual development (bauddhik vikas) and spiritual development (chaitsik vikas).
Vidya pravesh (entry level education) will enable Learning of ethical values and cultural diversity, and interaction with the physical, social and natural Environment, it said.
The government on Wednesday began the process of public consultations on the National Credit Framework (NCrF) which seeks to integrate academic and vocational domains to ensure flexibility and mobility between the two.
The NCrF has been proposed as part of the National Education Policy (NEP).
The NEP had envisioned the NCrF for opening numerous Options for inter-mingling of school and higher education with Vocational Education and experiential learning, thus mainstreaming skilling and vocational education. It will also enable students who have dropped out of the mainstream education to re-enter the education ecosystem.
The NCrF proposes to seamlessly integrate the credits earned through school education, higher education and vocational and skill education by encompassing the National Higher Education Qualification Framework (NHEQF), National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQ