PANAJI
The Education department on Friday rolled out the much awaited Circular on NEP 2020 implementation for Class IX from 2024-25 academic year, giving a clarity on five and half daily instructional hours.
The department also granted relaxation to Class IX students, who opted for French, Portuguese, German or Arabic languages in Class VIII, under the 'R3' Curricular Areas.
"All institutions will maintain minimum five and half instructional hours which shall not include assembly, recess and remedial teaching. The timings may be decided by the schools concerned in consultation with all stakeholders," reads the circular issued by Education Director Shailesh Zingde.
Education Secretary Prasad Lolayekar had clarified on Thursday that the ‘model timetable’ provided by the Education Department to schools for implementing the NEP in Class IX is not mandatory. Earlier, the Goa Secondary School Teachers Association (GSSTA) called upon the education officials opposing the State Council of Educational Research and Training's (SCERT) provision of 39 working hours per week, which contrasted with the National Curriculum Framework’s recommendation of 29 hours.
The NEP, to be implemented under State Curriculum Framework, has also defined the curricular areas explaining the language options.
While English will remain R1 (Regional Languages), R2 contains another language option from Marathi, Konkani or Hindi; whereas R3 will be 'any language native to India presently offered by Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education including Konkani/Marathi/Hindi if not opted for R2.
It also stated that relaxation in R3 will be granted for any language offered by Goa Board including foreign languages like French, Portuguese, German and Arabic for those students who opted it in Class VIII.
The other subjects would be Mathematics and Computational Thinking, Science, Social Science, Interdisciplinary areas, Vocational Education, Physical Education and Well Being, and Art Education. Textbooks will remain the same for first to fourth curricular areas. There are no textbooks for the remaining however, curricular and learning outcomes would be provided.
"Learning outcomes of all subjects will be hosted on the SCERT website. Schools are required to download the same," it added.
