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Quality primary education in India: A review and analysis of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF-2005), with a focus on curriculum reform in primary (Grade I-V) education

The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 (NCF-2005) was introduced by the Government of India to address the issue of quality in education. This study aims to analyse the area of actual curriculum reform for quality aspects at the primary (Grade I-V) level, both generally and specifically within Indi...

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Main Author: Saha, Anshu
Other Authors: Gilmour, James David
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Education 2017
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access_status_str Open Access
author Saha, Anshu
author2 Gilmour, James David
author_browse Gilmour, James David
Saha, Anshu
author_facet Gilmour, James David
Saha, Anshu
author_sort Saha, Anshu
collection Thesis
description The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 (NCF-2005) was introduced by the Government of India to address the issue of quality in education. This study aims to analyse the area of actual curriculum reform for quality aspects at the primary (Grade I-V) level, both generally and specifically within India, in order to look at the quality aspect of education, which the NCF-2005 highlights as a key aim. In light of this, the key question that the current study asks is: how does the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF-2005) address the 'quality' issue for primary education? In order to move more closely to an assessment of 'quality' within NCF-2005, this study employed document analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as methodological tools. The study used CDA to generate a critical analysis of the dominant discourses in the NCF-2005 policy document alongside a framework that included tools for policy analysis. An important feature of the framework design was that it considered various definitions of 'quality' at the international level; the influence of these on the national level, and how these are operationalized in the curriculum through the NCF-2005's key monitoring tool- Quality Monitoring Tool (QMT). The primary level (Grade I-V) curriculum is used in this thesis as an illustrative case. This study concludes with an attempt to highlight that the problem does not necessarily lie with the quality indicators or the definition of quality, nor necessarily with the curriculum itself. On the contrary the difficulty lies far more with complex implementation issues- the QMTs, the texts, and the lack of teacher training to implement the new curriculum. Also, the study highlights how the humanistic indicators that better capture the concept of 'quality' have been downplayed. Thus the thesis concludes that the NCF-2005 does not sufficiently capture the differing political, social and education ideologies resulting in a subsequent gap between the policy and its implementation.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:12.136Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
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publisher School of Education
publisherStr School of Education
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/24512 Quality primary education in India: A review and analysis of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF-2005), with a focus on curriculum reform in primary (Grade I-V) education Saha, Anshu Gilmour, James David Education The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 (NCF-2005) was introduced by the Government of India to address the issue of quality in education. This study aims to analyse the area of actual curriculum reform for quality aspects at the primary (Grade I-V) level, both generally and specifically within India, in order to look at the quality aspect of education, which the NCF-2005 highlights as a key aim. In light of this, the key question that the current study asks is: how does the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF-2005) address the 'quality' issue for primary education? In order to move more closely to an assessment of 'quality' within NCF-2005, this study employed document analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as methodological tools. The study used CDA to generate a critical analysis of the dominant discourses in the NCF-2005 policy document alongside a framework that included tools for policy analysis. An important feature of the framework design was that it considered various definitions of 'quality' at the international level; the influence of these on the national level, and how these are operationalized in the curriculum through the NCF-2005's key monitoring tool- Quality Monitoring Tool (QMT). The primary level (Grade I-V) curriculum is used in this thesis as an illustrative case. This study concludes with an attempt to highlight that the problem does not necessarily lie with the quality indicators or the definition of quality, nor necessarily with the curriculum itself. On the contrary the difficulty lies far more with complex implementation issues- the QMTs, the texts, and the lack of teacher training to implement the new curriculum. Also, the study highlights how the humanistic indicators that better capture the concept of 'quality' have been downplayed. Thus the thesis concludes that the NCF-2005 does not sufficiently capture the differing political, social and education ideologies resulting in a subsequent gap between the policy and its implementation. 2017-06-06T09:48:25Z 2017-06-06T09:48:25Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MEd http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24512 eng application/pdf School of Education Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Education
Saha, Anshu
Quality primary education in India: A review and analysis of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF-2005), with a focus on curriculum reform in primary (Grade I-V) education
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Quality primary education in India: A review and analysis of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF-2005), with a focus on curriculum reform in primary (Grade I-V) education
title_full Quality primary education in India: A review and analysis of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF-2005), with a focus on curriculum reform in primary (Grade I-V) education
title_fullStr Quality primary education in India: A review and analysis of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF-2005), with a focus on curriculum reform in primary (Grade I-V) education
title_full_unstemmed Quality primary education in India: A review and analysis of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF-2005), with a focus on curriculum reform in primary (Grade I-V) education
title_short Quality primary education in India: A review and analysis of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF-2005), with a focus on curriculum reform in primary (Grade I-V) education
title_sort quality primary education in india a review and analysis of the national curriculum framework 2005 ncf 2005 with a focus on curriculum reform in primary grade i v education
topic Education
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24512
work_keys_str_mv AT sahaanshu qualityprimaryeducationinindiaareviewandanalysisofthenationalcurriculumframework2005ncf2005withafocusoncurriculumreforminprimarygradeiveducation