NCERT is boosting the arts in secondary school. It must do the same for higher education

Indian Express

6 days ago

The NCERT is being criticised for a series of changes in history textbooks. However, many have not noticed that the NCERT has made another significant change to the secondary syllabus. From the 2025-26 session, theatre, music, and drama will be regular subjects starting in grade VIII. This change is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023. This means that all students, no matter what they like or how much they know about the arts, will have to study and pass the subjects to move on to the following school year. The goal of the change is to give students a more well-rounded education that includes both traditional academic and creative and artistic learning. The NCERT has also released a new art textbook called Kriti to help with this transition. This book will be the main resource for teaching the visual and performing arts.
This change is significant, as it puts equal value on both the intellectual and creative progress of a student. Since the arts soften hearts, a change like this will have an impact on society. Practitioners of fine arts are generally less likely to encourage discrimination, sectarianism, and hatred. They are often the torchbearers of love, empathy, and equity. If sincerely put into practice, the change made by the NCERT will help create an India we all dream of.
Rabindranath Tagore did what the NCERT is doing many years ago. At his school in Santiniketan, the students did not just read textbooks. Singing, dancing, and painting were part of the curriculum. Tagore favoured the holistic development of students. The growth of a human mind was much more important to him than the attainment of a degree. While establishing Visva-Bharati University, Tagore ensured that it did not become a degree-granting institution. For a long time, no degree or certificate was awarded at the university. When this system was launched in collaboration with the University of Calcutta, Tagore reluctantly accepted the change.
Tagore strongly argued that creativity should be given priority in teaching and research, not only at the school level but also in higher education. In 1919, in his first speech in English in India, he spoke about what an Indian university should be like: 'I have to give utterance to a truism and say with profound seriousness that music and the fine arts are among the highest means of national self-expression, without which the people remain inarticulate.' Visva-Bharati had separate departments for teaching these subjects.
These changes at the secondary level, in line with the National Education Policy 2020 and Tagore's philosophy of education, are commendable. It is time they are made in higher education with the same spirit. Otherwise, the qualities acquired by a student in adolescence will inevitably be defunct with time. Soft faculties of the human mind need continuous practice and nurturing.
This is where we have to ask a big question. In the last few years, the central government's budget allocation to the higher education sector has been continuously reduced. This has had a direct impact on the study and research of the humanities. It may be argued that this is a global phenomenon. As a discipline, the humanities are in crisis in academia across the globe. But if India has to distinguish itself from other countries and revive some of the best practices of its traditional knowledge systems, it should boost humanities studies and research in higher education, giving due priority to performative arts. Even massive changes in the syllabus at the secondary level won't be enough.
In fact, to achieve what the NEP 2020 promises, higher education needs to be tied in closely with school education. If the great qualitative change that the NCERT has brought in the syllabus at the school level is not carried forward to the domain of higher education, the full benefits of this change will never be achieved. To quote Tagore, 'In the proposed centre of our cultures [in a university], music and art must have their prominent seats of honour, and not merely a tolerant nod of recognition.'
The writer is professor, Department of English and Culture Studies, and director, Centre for Australian Studies, University of Burdwan