Yes, under Section 7(6a), the central government has to develop a framework of national curriculum with the help of academic authorities of state governments. This is significant since the present practice of the NCERT preparing the NCF was of an advisory nature; under the Act, it has become mandatory, and shall involve the state governments too.

The state governments shall have to specify academic authorities that will lay down curriculum and evaluation procedures at the state level. These could be SCERTs or other academic institutions of the state. The state curriculums must however be prepared according to certain common principles of content and process described in Section 29(2).

The Act upholds internationally accepted research and academic practice that says:

• All children have similar potential for learning. If one child is doing better than the other, the problem is not with the child, but the different nurturing processes and systemic inputs. It therefore puts the onus of learning on the school and the system, and does not prescribe punishing the child through failure, detention and expulsion.

• Failing in examinations psychologically demotivates and socially humiliates children. Instead of improving their scholastic quality, failure and detention is more likely to result in pushing small children out of the school system, as drop outs.

• The Act prescribes a learning environment that does not cause fear, anxiety and trauma to children, promotes their all round development rather than only excellence in school subjects, building up child’s knowledge, potentiality and talent, imbibing values enshrined in the Constitution, learning through activities, discovery and exploration in child friendly and child centered manner, using the mother tongue as medium of instruction as far as possible, and Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation, rather than Board examinations.

The Act more or less legalizes the principles enunciated in the National Curriculum Framework 2005. As for implementation of these principles, the approaches described in the NCF 2005 and its accompanying 22 focus group reports, as also the text books, curricular material, in-service teacher training modules, CCE manuals etc. produced by the NCERT and a few other states would be a vital input for future implementation for quality improvement.

The procedure for certification is described at Model Rule 23. The certificate will include the Pupil Cumulative Record of a child which will contain the talents and abilities of the child beyond school subjects. The implication is that such a cumulative record, spanning eight years of elementary stage shall be kept for each child, and teachers shall be facilitated through trainings and other means to fulfill this task.