(Download) NCERT Revised syllabus Of Environmental (Class 3 to 5 )
 

Introduction: Teaching of Environmental Studies

The National Curriculum Committee had recommended in the 1975 policy document “The Curriculum for the Ten-year School: A Framework”, that a single subject ‘Environmental Studies’ be taught at the primary stage. It had proposed that in the first two years (Class I-II) Environmental Studies will look at both the natural and the social environment, while in Classes III-V there would be separate portions for social studies and general science termed as EVS Part I and Part II. The National Policy on Education 1986 and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 1988 also posited the same approach for the teaching of Environmental Studies at the primary stage. Contemporary research on how children learn to make sense of the world around them and how pedagogy in primary school can enable them to develop scientific abilities and understanding in consonance with social and environmental concerns has further supported this integrated structure. The NCF 2000 had recommended that Environmental Studies be taught as an integrated course for the entire primary stage, instead of in two distinct parts devoted to science and social studies in Classes III-V. The present NCF 2005 has called for the continuation and further strengthening of this integrated approach for Environmental Studies during the primary years.

 NCF 2005 and Objectives of Environmental Studies

The present syllabus is designed to forge an integrated perspective for the primary stage of schooling that draws upon insights from Sciences, Social Sciences and Environmental Education.

The National Curriculum Framework 2005 indicates some of the objectives of teaching science and Social Sciences at the primary stage as follows:

•  to train children to locate and comprehend relationships between the natural, social and cultural environment;

•  to develop an understanding based on observation and illustration, drawn from lived experiences and physical, biological, social and cultural aspects of life, rather than abstractions;

•  to create cognitive capacity and resourcefulness to make the child curious about social phenomena, starting with the family and moving on to wider spaces;

•  to nurture the curiosity and creativity of the child particularly in relation to the natural environment (including artifacts and people);

•  to develop an awareness about environmental issues;

•  to engage the child in exploratory and hands-on activities to acquire basic cognitive and psychomotor skills through observation, classification, inference, etc.;

•  to emphasise design and fabrication, estimation and measurement as a prelude to the development of technological and quantitative skills at later stages;

•  to be able to critically address gender concerns and issues of marginalisation and oppression with values of equality and justice, and respect for human dignity and rights.

Integrating ‘Subjects’ or Forging a New Understanding?

What do we understand by General Science and Social Sciences? When we think of these ‘subjects’ in school we clearly have in mind some body of knowledge and also typical ways of acquiring that knowledge that we associate with each of them. These school subjects have evolved through their own complicated histories and are today quite different from the way sciences or social sciences are practiced in the real world of specialized disciplines, such as physics, zoology, chemistry, molecular biology, history, sociology, geography, economics, political science, etc. So what happens when groups of specialists sit down to discuss what should be taught at the primary level? They naturally tend to think of ‘topics’ that have traditionally served as the bases of their own different disciplines. Thus biologists (if we can use that term to somehow bring together botanists and zoologists!) would naturally propose a study of plants, animals or the human body, whereas physicists would think of sound, light, force and work, while chemists would propose studying forms of matter, properties of substances, etc. Add to this the different disciplines under the rubric of Social Sciences and we soon end up with a confounding platter of topics, which are not necessarily ‘integratable’, and are neither close to the way the child relates to her world. Most primary school curricula working on an integrated approach therefore do not proceed with lists of ‘topics’ from different ‘subjects’ but instead propose ‘themes’ that allow for a connected and inter-related understanding to develop. This requires moving beyond traditional boundaries of disciplines and looking at priorities in a shared way. This approach has been followed for the present syllabus. Several themes were discussed to see what possibilities each of them offers, to bring together insights from different disciplines, in an interconnected manner that is basically child centered. For each theme a web of possible connections was drawn up, of concepts and skills, to explore how that may be developed over the primary years. Specialists from several different disciplines of sciences, social sciences, pedagogy, gender studies, child development, curriculum studies, etc. discussed the possibilities of the proposed themes, pointed out the gaps, and debated on the priorities for a child centered approach. It is clear that there is no single format that can offer a uniquely satisfactory elaboration of ideas for primary school and this syllabus too makes no such claim.

This is not a prescriptive but instead a suggestive format, which indicates the key themes and sub–themes along with their possible connections. It consciously begins with key questions rather than key concepts, which can trigger the child’s thinking in new directions and provide scaffolding to her learning process. This format is meant to help textbook writers, teachers and parents to appreciate the immense possibilities and the depth of children’s understanding. It also indicates how adults can stimulate and actively support children’s learning, rather than restrict or throttle it, as often happens when children are forced to memorise information they just cannot understand.

 Themes for a Child Centered and Integrated Approach

This syllabus web has been developed within a child centered perspective of themes that provide a common interface of issues in social studies, sciences and environmental education. The syllabus for Classes III-V is woven around six common themes given below; the predominant theme on

‘Family and Friends’ encompasses four sub-themes:

1. Family and Friends:

1.1 Relationships;
1.2 Work and Play;
1.3 Animals;
1.4 Plants

2. Food;
3. Shelter;
4. Water;
5. Travel;
6. Things We Make and Do

The syllabus web moves outward over the three years; it gradually extends the child’s understanding of her world, beginning from the immediate ‘self ’ to include her family, the neighbourhood, the locality and also the country. Thus by the time the child reaches Class V, she is able to see her ‘self ’ in the larger context – as part of a community, the country and also, more tacitly, as located in this world. Indeed, in some flights of fancy the syllabus even goads the young child to ride on a spacecraft and leap beyond the earth, into outer space, that may yet not be comprehensible but is certainly fascinating for her.

Thus, for instance, the theme on ‘Food’ begins in Class III with ‘cooking’, ‘eating in the family’, about what we eat and what others eat, what animals eat, etc. It then moves on in Class IV to how food is grown, what different plants they may have seen, how food reaches us, etc. In Class V children discuss who grows it, the hardships farmers may face, while staying grounded to the reality of our own pangs of hunger or the plight of people who do not get food. In addition, ‘when food gets spoilt’ explores spoilage and preservation of food, while changes in food habits and the crops grown are analysed through the experiences of elders/grandparents. Finally ‘our mouth - tastes and even digests food’ sees how the saliva makes food taste sweet on chewing, while ‘food for plants?’ also introduces the idea of some curious insect eating plants.

The theme on ‘Travel’ was developed to help the child on this journey of ideas, of expanding social and physical spaces, into newer and unfamiliar terrains of often mind-boggling and no less fascinating diversity. In Class III the theme encourages children to look at their own journeys, if any, and to see how older people in their family may have traveled in earlier times, as they also hear of accounts of how people travel today in a desert, through forests, in the hills, or in big cities. Moreover, it also suggests a story as a ‘resource’, to bring into the classroom the experiences of a child of a migrating family and the problems she faces in the process of her schooling. Such narratives suggested as ‘resources’ are meant to provide creative opportunities of bringing in experiences of other children/people, who may be very different, but whom children can relate to. This can be done through stories, posters, plays, films, and other media. In Class V the theme ‘Travel’ takes children through the ‘rough and tough’ terrain of the Himalayas with, perhaps, the story of Bachhendri Pal, who hoists the national flag after a trying expedition, while they can also be encouraged to design a flag for their own school.

This theme also takes them on a ‘ride on a spacecraft’ into space, from where for the first time they see the aerial view of the earth, and being no less than a Rakesh Sharma or a Kalpana Chawla, each child is asked to give an interview to the Prime Minister of India about what they see from there!. The exercise of looking at aerial views is developed through different views of school, where different perspectives get introduced. It is linked to the concept of mapping, which they begin in Class III through a basic two-dimensional representation of their classroom, and by the time they reach Class V they can read and draw simple aerial views of their locality or city.

‘Plants’ and ‘Animals’ as Part of the Theme ‘Family and Friends’

‘Plants’ and ‘Animals’ have consciously been included under the theme of ‘Family and Friends’ to highlight how humans share a close relationship with them and to also provide a holistic and integrated scientific and social perspective of studying them. Traditionally ‘plants’ or animals’ are presented as autonomous categories, seen purely from the perspective of science. Here an attempt is made to locate them in a social and cultural context, and also to see how the lives and livelihoods of some communities, such as the gujjars, musahars or ‘pattal’-makers, are closely connected with specific animals or plants. Moreover, in the universe of young children narratives of animals and plants play a significant role, and they can relate well even to the animated characters perceived as ‘family and friends’. It is a challenge to transcend conventional boundaries of scientific disciplines to try and relook at the notions of, say, ‘plants’, ‘animals’, ‘food’, or ‘our body’ from a child’s perspective. In fact, some scientific categories are seen to be too formal and counter-intuitive, and perhaps even ‘reductionist’, for the child to understand. Conventionally biologists divide living things broadly into two categories ‘plants’ and ‘animals’. The idea of ‘plants’ is considered simple enough to be presented in primary school along with ‘parts of a plant’, ‘functions of the parts of the plant’, etc. But why should this way of looking at a plant be considered more ‘natural’ or even desirable for a child? In fact, extensive research across the world has shown that young children find it too abstract to make a distinction between living and non-living, or to divide the living world between plants and animals. Despite considerable exposure to science teaching in several countries, children as old as 13-15 years have consistently believed that a tree is different from a plant, contradicting the conventional categories of biologists’. Children also systematically differentiate between plants and vegetables (‘a carrot and cabbage are not plants’), or even between plants and weeds (‘grass is not a plant’). Moreover, a majority of children do not naturally think of seeds as parts of a plant. This has led some primary school curricula to postpone these conventional categories and first allow space to children to explore their own intuitive ideas, in order to achieve a better understanding later of how science tends to classify them differently.

Taking cognisance of the way children think ‘plants’ are first introduced through the theme on ‘Food’ – through what plants children eat, and also through the idea that we may eat the leaves, or the stem, or seeds of different plants. In fact, this comes after a discussion on questions related to ‘Which of the following is food? – red ants, birds’ nest, goats’ milk, etc. This is to sensitise them to the idea that what some of us take to be ‘food’ may not be so for others; that food is a deeply cultural notion. As discussed above, to allow for a more connected approach ‘plants’ is a sub-theme under the umbrella of ‘Family and Friends’. Thus in Class III children look at the different ‘plants around us’, at possible changes over time from when their parents were young, and also what things around them are made of plants. They are expected to talk to their parents and other elders around them, so that these discussions can act as scaffolding to their learning. This is also indicated in the activity column of the syllabus. Children in Class III also observe the shapes, colours, aroma, etc to see the diversity of ‘leaves in our lives’, to talk of how plant leaves may be used to eat on, the times of the year when lots of leaves fall to the ground, which may be used to make compost, and also paint different leaf motifs they see on their pots, animals, clothes, walls, etc. In Class IV they look at ‘flowers’ and flower sellers, and discuss ‘whom trees belong to?’ while in Class V they move on to ‘forests and forest people’, the notion of parks or sanctuaries, and also ‘plants that have come from far’. In this way they are enabled to construct a more holistically connected understanding, from a scientific, social, cultural and environmental perspective, that is enriched with an aesthetic and caring appreciation of plants around them.

Our Bodies, Ourselves: ‘Family and Friends’ offer Sensitivity and Sensibility Similar to the case of ‘plants’ discussed above, traditionally ‘our body’ is also treated in a purely scientific and socially distanced manner, with units such as ‘our senses’, ‘parts/organs of the body’ and ‘respiration’, ‘digestion’, etc. However, the theme ‘Family and Friends’, specially through its two sub-themes 1.1 Relationships and 1.2 Work and Play, allows children to look at their own body as part of their ‘self ’ in a more contextual and connected manner. In Class III in the sub-theme on Relationships, they discuss their relatives, who live with them and those who have moved away, to get a basic idea of relationships and changing households. They reflect on whom they admire among their relatives and for what qualities or skills, and describe on which occasions or festivals they meet most of them. The unit ‘our bodies – old and young’ helps them place their own body in relation to those of their family members, and asks them to notice differences that may occur with age. More significantly, the rubric of the family provides a sense of intimacy and empathy, to help develop sensitivity towards people having different abilities/disabilities. For instance, they look at how some of their older family members may have difficulty in hearing or seeing, and then go on to discuss how they themselves or their friends may cope with such challenges.

In Class IV, the same sub-theme ‘Relationships’ has a unit on ‘your mother as a child’ to make children find out about who were her relatives with whom she lived then. They also think about their body in relation to their mother’s; how a baby rat or kitten is related to its mother, and through a possible narrative, about children who may have been adopted/looked after by foster parents, say, after a cyclone. By ‘Feeling around with eyes shut’ they explore their senses of touch, smell, etc. - not in isolation of the people or animals they care for - but by trying to identify all those living with them only by touching, hearing or smelling them. They continue the exploration
 

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