PANAJI
The process of implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) will be carried out in a "phased manner" and from the upcoming academic year beginning in June this year, it will be done only at the pre-primary (nursery) school level.
The Directorate of Education (DoE) has come up with an online app, which is expected to be launched shortly, to facilitate the grant of permissions for new pre-primary schools and also for fresh registrations.
According to Education Director Shailesh Zingade, Goa does not at present have any statute government pre-primary education as the Goa Education Act and the rules thereunder which govern school education have no regulations other than general guidelines for nursery and kindergarten education.
Nonetheless, the department is working on curriculum and has already prepared books in English and Marathi. Translation in Konkani is ongoing and is expected to be complete in a couple of weeks.
"We are implementing NEP phase-wise. This year only the nursery and pre-primary sections will be brought under the NEP ambit," Zingde said.
The NEP is a major education reform initiative of the Central government which overhauls the education system by introducing new curriculum and also a pedagogical structure to bring it in tune with International systems. For school education, it proposes to replace the current 10+2 system with a 5+3+3+4 system, right from pre-primary level to the higher-secondary level.
It was unveiled back in 2020 but its implementation got delayed due to the pandemic.
