Union HRD Minister releases the curriculum on Experiential Learning – Gandhijis Nai Talim

Newdelhi:5/9/18:Union HRD Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar released the curriculum on Experiential Learning – Gandhijis Nai Talim in New Delhi today. This curriculum was brought out simultaneously in 13 languages i.e., Assamese, Tamil, Bengali, Odiya, Kannada, Malyalam, Punjabi, Marathi, Telugu, Gujarati, Urdu, Hindi and English in consultation with the state councils of educational research and training along with the universities in the country.

Speaking on the occasion the Minister said that we would like to take experiential learning to all levels of education involving all states and all stakeholders. He said that the Gandhiji’s Nai Talim or basic education was a holistic approach of developing body, mind and soul (hand, head and heart), by making a productive art, craft or community engagement activity as the centre of learning. Gandhi ji said “by education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and man-body, mind and spirit”, said the Minister.

The Minister congratulated Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education for having involved all stakeholders in bringing out this Curriculum for Experiential Learning which is also based on Gandhi ji’s Nai Talim.

On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s upcoming 150^th birth anniversary celebrations, a movement is on across the educational institutions in the country to promote Nai Talim, Work Education and Experiential Learning. A special effort is on school and teacher education in the areas of work education and experiential learning through the education departments of Universities as well as Central and State Governments and the SCERTs.

Marking the occasion of Teacher’s Day, the book titled “Experiential Learning – Gandhiji’s Nai Talim is launched today. This book is expected to inspire this movement to cover progressively 25 crore students of educational institutes at different levels in the country covering 80 lakh primary school teachers and 20 lakh secondary school teachers, spread over 17.5 lakh primary schools and 2.5 lakh secondary schools across the country. We wish to simultaneously release this book on September 5^th, 2018 across the 29 States of India and NCR.

The book contains basic principles of Gandhiji’s Nai Talim (our notes and interpretations), along with the Work and Education curriculum for Schools, D.Ed, B.Ed and Faculty Development Programmes for teachers.

This book and this project is a joint effort of the Universities in the state, state SCERT and Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education (MGNCRE), formerly known as National Council of Rural Institutes (NCRI), under the Ministry of Human Resource Development in Government of India. MGNCRE in Higher Education Department of the Union Ministry Human Resource Development strives to promote resilient India through curricular interventions like curriculum design, development and capacitating teachers for higher education programmes offered by Universities and Autonomous Institutions in India.