National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023

The National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023 (NCF-SE 2023) treats environmental learning as education about how people and nature depend on one another and how to act responsibly within that relationship. Its approach is interdisciplinary and action-oriented: learners should connect scientific understanding with social, ethical and practical questions rather than merely memorise environmental facts.

An interdisciplinary understanding of the environment

Environmental issues cannot be understood through natural science alone. The framework brings together knowledge of natural systems, human societies and their interactions.

• Learning should connect ecological processes with human activities such as production, consumption and the use of natural resources.
• Environmental questions should be examined through scientific, social and ethical perspectives, including how human choices affect other people and other forms of life.
• Environmental understanding should develop across relevant curricular areas, rather than remain confined to an isolated chapter on pollution or conservation.

Learning through local experience and inquiry

The learner’s surroundings provide a starting point for understanding wider environmental challenges. Experiential learning connects classroom knowledge with observation and investigation outside it.

• Children should investigate familiar surroundings, including water sources, plants, animals and patterns of waste generation, through observation and inquiry.
• Learning should progress from concrete experiences towards increasingly complex explanations of environmental relationships and problems.
• Projects, field visits and discussion should help learners connect evidence from their locality with broader concerns such as biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change.
• Local and traditional knowledge can contribute to learning, alongside scientific inquiry and critical examination.

From awareness to responsible action

The intended outcome is not awareness alone, but the development of knowledge, capacities, values and dispositions needed for environmentally responsible living.

• Learners should develop care for the natural world and recognise the consequences of individual and collective choices.
• Practical activities should provide opportunities to participate in environmental protection, including resource conservation and responsible waste management.
• Learning should encourage students to investigate a problem, consider possible responses, participate in appropriate action and reflect on its consequences.
• Environmental responsibility should therefore be practised through school and community experiences, not taught only as a set of desirable slogans.