The shift towards competency-based teaching and learning in the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) will provide an important basis for curricular and pedagogical transformation in schools.

The learning goals defined by NEP 2020, namely holistic and integrated development of students, and the acquisition of higher order cognitive capacities such as analysis, critical thinking and problem solving will be enabled by this shift. 

Such competencies will also enable equitable educational experiences by ensuring equivalence of pedagogical approaches and learning outcomes across schools and Boards of Examination.

In keeping with the thrust on competency-based teaching-learning proposed in the NEP 2020, Azim Premji University has supported the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to develop a ​‘Learning Framework’. 

The learning framework is a comprehensive package that provides learning outcomes, competencies, assessment frameworks, samples of pedagogical processes, tools and techniques for formative assessment, blueprint, assessment items, and rubrics.

Such samples will enable teachers to understand principles for enabling competency-based education in their classrooms.

Five such frameworks have been developed for English, Hindi, Science, Social Science, and Mathematics at the secondary stage (for classes IX and X). 

The Learning Frameworks comprise explicitly stated knowledge, skills and dispositions that an education system should try to achieve. These frameworks would help develop a common shared understanding among teachers, students, and other stakeholders and would serve as a common benchmark for teaching, learning, and assessment across the country. 

These frameworks present competencies that are aligned to the CBSE curriculum and the NCERT Learning Outcomes. They further outline samples of pedagogical processes and assessment strategies to encourage curiosity, objectivity, creativity with a view to nurture scientific temper.

This framework would be a key resource for teachers as they transact the curriculum and would ensure that they align the teaching-learning to meet the set quality standards and also use it to track the learning levels of students. 

The effort has been to synchronise focus on quality education with uniformity in quality of standards across CBSE schools.

Process of developing the learning frameworks

The flow diagram below depicts the steps in the process of developing the Learning Framework. 

Potential uses of this document

• Classroom teaching, learning and assessment: This document will be helpful for classroom teachers and students to see the connection between syllabus, textbook and learning outcomes. The competencies can be used to effectively plan classroom pedagogy and design formative assessment. The competencies can also be used by students to self-assess and plan their learning better.
• Pre-service and In-service Teacher Professional Development: This document can be utilised for developing content for professional development programmes for teachers – both at the pre-service and in-service levels. The sample pedagogical processes and assessment strategies will provide student teachers as well as in-service teachers an insight on how to concretise the learning outcomes in the classroom.
• Textbook development: Clearly stated competencies could also facilitate the review and revision of the textbooks used for secondary stage, and in the designing of new textbooks.
• Developing Assessment Frameworks and tools for large-scale assessments/​surveys: This document may be used for developing assessment frameworks and question papers for Board examinations of different states leading to uniformity in quality standards across states. It could be used as a framework for drawing key competencies for National Achievement Survey (NAS). Reporting the assessment data against these outcomes will provide a comprehensive picture of the overall health of the education system of the country.

Prior to releasing the Frameworks, CBSE hosted consultative webinars for describing them, the process of their development, and how the same can be used. 

The links to the same can be found below: 

• Consultation for CBSE Learning Standards Frameworks for Classes IX‑X Science

• Consultation for CBSE Learning Standards Frameworks for Classes IX‑X English

• Consultation for CBSE Learning Standards Frameworks for Classes IX‑X Mathematics

• Consultation for CBSE Learning Standards Frameworks for Classes IX‑X Hindi

• Consultation for CBSE Learning Standards Frameworks for Classes IX‑X Social Science

The Frameworks are now released on the CBSE site and are available for download and use.