Developing a school culture can do much to mould students well

The NCF lays special emphasis on it to foster a good learning environment and boost performance

- ANURAG BEHAR

The curriculum in a school includes everything that directly shapes the learning of students. Not only learning goals, subject content, textbooks, pedagogy and assessment, but also the school’s culture and processes. Narrow views of a curriculum often determine the design and even more so its practice, ignoring or paying lip service to the central role that school culture and processes play in education.

The National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023 (NCF) gives culture and process their due importance by not limiting itself merely to well-intentioned statements. It converts statements of intent and principle to behaviour and practices, which is how culture is experienced by students. Instead of merely stating that respect for all is important to develop values like pluralism, empathy and inclusion, it distills the statement to its manifestation in everyday school life, such as the treatment of parents when they come to meet the principal or teachers, the behaviour of teachers with students struggling academically, the celebration of students’ acts of support to others, and a lot more.

School culture plays two kinds of roles in student learning—in creating an effective learning environment with motivated and engaged students, and in developing values. My last column detailed the approach of the NCF to development values, including the role of school culture.