Kerala is gearing up to offer a viable alternative to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in its school curriculum framework. While keeping within the NEP’s pedagogical and curricular restructuring paradigms and proposals for school education, the State nevertheless seems to be aspiring for a ‘Kerala Model’ of school curriculum, one that would resist overarching attempts at homogenisation and centralisation. It aims to write regional and ethnic needs, knowledges and histories into the curriculum, while attempting to preserve the constitutional, moral, and ethical values of an equitable public education in the age of neoliberalisation.
Explained | Has Kerala changed its stance on the NEP?
The NITI Aayog SDG Report 2021 has described Kerala, a State consistently ranked highest in the country in school education, as a “frontrunner” State. The NEP 2020’s school education vision of universal provisioning of quality early childhood development, care, and education has been achieved by Kerala many years back. The State had last revised its school curriculum in 2013, and much water has flowed under the bridge since, especially given the paradigm shifts vis-a-vis the global education scenario during the COVID-19 pandemic.
