Minimum Level of Learning

It is seen that despite of many efforts to raise the level of primary education, there has been no
improvement in the quality of students in rural and backward areas. Even today the standard
of education is very low. For this, the idea of providing high quality primary education came
up. The Minimum Level of Learning strategy for improving the quality of elementary
education is an attempt to combine quality with equity. It lays down learning outcomes in the
form of competencies or levels for learning for each stage of elementary education. The need
to lay down Minimum Level of Learning emerges from the basic concern that irrespective of
caste, creed, location or sex, all children must be given access to education of a comparable
standard. Minimum Level of Learning in terms of learning competencies expected to be
mastered by every child by the end of a particular class or stage of education. Each competency
can be further delineated in terms of sub-competencies while specifying the content inputs or
while measures of learning. According to Kureen (1991), “The set of Minimum Level of
Learning would actually represent the rational criteria adopted for judging the adequacy of the
curricular inputs provided and the learning outcomes to be expected”.

The Education Commission (1964-66) i.e. Kothari Commission had emphasized that the
learners of all schools must attain a specified level of learning. NCERT was trying in this
direction that the Central Government must resolve to fix the minimum learning level at the
primary level.

According to the National Education Policy (1986), all children up to 14 years of age must be
provided free, compulsory and satisfactory education before the start of the 21st century.
Hence, to achieve the goal of universalization of elementary education, it is divided into 3
major steps:
(i) Universal Access
(ii) Universal enrolment and retention
(iii) Universal Achievement

For this, Central and State Government were opened primary schools in 1 km distance for
94% of the rural population and for 84% of the people upper primary schools were established
at a distance of 3 km. Efforts are being made for Skill-based or efficiency-based learning. In
order to meet this goal, minimum levels of learning have been implemented in many states.
Textbooks, workbooks, supplementary reading material, reference books were prepared and a
system of evaluation has also been developed. In primary education schemes, expenditure on
primary education was also increased.
Despite of all these efforts-
(1) Teachers teach with the same traditional method to complete the syllabus somehow.
(2) Monotonous and burdened primary education on the one hand increases the learning
pressure and on the other hand, children’s mental abilities like logical thinking, creativity,
concrete operational thinking, intelligence, ability to analyse, utilizing information and
problem-solving ability are not being developed.
(3) It is evident from the studies of Dave et.al. (1988), Bashir et.al. (1993), Govinda and
Varghese (1993), Jangir (1994), Shukla (1994) etc. that the achievement level of primary
school children is very low.

Till now it has been considered necessary to determine minimum level of learning to
achieve equality and quality in education. Many efforts have been made for this so far.
Dave Committee for minimum education level-

Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) constituted a committee under the

chairmanship of Dr. R. L. Dave on 5 January 1990. The committee gave following topics to
consider-
(1) Minimum level of learning prescribed for classes 3 and 5.
(2) Presenting a process for comprehensive learner assessment and measurement.
(3) Consideration for specific learning areas and suggestion for concrete methods to improve
learning in that learning areas. It has both formal and informal systems.

What is the requirement of the minimum level of learning?

The minimum level of learning is the anticipated learning product, where the committee has
expected attainment of competencies. In addition, this observable final behaviour is the
application of expected learning products to the analysis of learning objectives such as
knowledge, perception, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. All these abilities can be attained
by the students at the end of education. Dave committee has determined the minimum level of
learning as the ultimate efficiency. These can also be defined as skills of learning.

Two basic considerations kept in view while formulating the minimum level of learning are:
(1) Cognitive abilities of the children at different classes or grades corresponding to different
stage of development.
(2) The empirical reality in terms of the enabling environmental conditions that characterize
the primary education programmes.

Minimum learning level in language for different primary classes-

According to Dave Committee, the minimum level of learning in the language for different
primary classes-
(1) Listening
(2) Speaking
(3) Reading
(4) Perception of thoughts (By listening and reading)
(5) Grammar
(6) Self-learning
(7) Usage of language
(8) Control over use of vocabulary

Benefits from fixation (deciding) of Minimum Learning level-

(1) Teachers and students become aware of minimum level and keep it in view to teach.
Once the goal is decided, motivation for studying is promoted in them.
(2) Teachers and students have a distinct quality experience.
(3) Due to being accurate and clear, minimum level of learning have high communication
efficiency.

Therefore, students living in remote areas can easily understand the instructions required for
 learning.
(4) Curriculum developers, textbook authors and question paper makers are helped in
determining the appropriate content selection and assessment conditions.
(5) The effectiveness of informal education increases as the student attempts more to achieve
goals such as formal primary education in a shorter period of time.
(6) It is easy to make a teaching plan.
(7) Due to the determination of minimum learning places that are helpful in organizing
remedial teaching, more emphasis is placed on the process of learning rather than subject
matter during teaching. As a result, the quality of education improves.
(8) With the help of the minimum level of learning, teacher will be able to- (i) Emphasize
on developing the expected competencies among the learners. (ii) Adopt a suitable
approach and methods in the teaching learning process. (iii) Evaluate the learner’s
achievement effectively by choosing appropriate methods.

Core Curriculum

The primary school textbook has so much content that children consider them burden. In these
textbooks, many topics are often not useful for life. Today, it is not important to learn
something new rather how is learned, this is more important. Today’s need it to make learning
more and more enjoyable. Emphasis should be laid on the attainment of minimum learning
level. In New Education Police (NEP) for the reorientation of content National Core
Curriculum, National Curriculum Framework, syllabus, instructional packages and revised
work experience programme have been suggested.

Meaning of Core Curriculum:

The term is used as a synonym for a mixed form of words – common, central, definite and
necessary. Therefore, the core curriculum includes the knowledge and experience that all the
students require whether they want to enter in any field of life. According to Hildataba, “Core
Curriculum is based on the subject matter related to the functions of life, contemporary
problems and needs. Also, its programmes are tried to relate with the problems of life and
interest of the students. Therefore, we can say that in the core curriculum knowledge of some
subjects are essential, that are compulsory and some subjects are optional which can be opted
by the students according to their interest. In relation to both personal and social problems of
the students, such experience are provided with the help of which they can easily solve every
problem in their life and become better citizens. The objective of core curriculum is the
development of both society and the individual.

National Education Policy (1986) outlined the frame work of national curriculum that has been
based on a common and central curriculum. It includes–
(i) History of the Indian Independence movement.
(ii) It includes the content related to constitutional values and national identities.