19-10-22 Daily-Gujarat-GPSC Current Affairs

A new DEFENCE airbase is slated to come up atDeesain Banaskantha district ofGujaratfor the Indian Air Force (IAF). The foundation stone for the airbase will be laid by Prime MinisterNarendra Modiduring the Defence Expo 2022 scheduled to be held in Gandhinagar next week.

The decision to set up the airbase was taken in 2020 by the Centre. This will call for an of at least Rs 1,000 crore, according to sources privy to the development.

Some 4,500 acre land has been earmarked for setting up the airbase, which will be situated some 130km from the Indo-Pak border and this proximity will help reduce the aerial distance in Indian Air Defence along the western border.

The airbase will, therefore, be a strategic location for theSouthwestern Air Commandwhich is tasked to protect Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. The airbase will expand the operating range of the Indian fighter jets in war situations, according to experts.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday launched the National Curriculum Framework for foundational stage education of children in the three to eight years age group.

Early childhood care and education are key areas of development, according to the 2022 framework.

The NCF-2022 has four sections the National Curriculum Framework for School Education, the National Curriculum Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education, the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education and the National Curriculum Framework for Adult Education.

Research from across the world on education, neuroscience and economics demonstrates clearly that ensuring free, accessible, high quality early childhood care and education is perhaps the very best that any country can make for its future, according to the NCF for foundational stage.

The framework has listed the panchakosha concept for education of children and its five parts are physical development (sharirik vikas), development of life energy (pranik vikas), emotional and mental development (manasik vikas), intellectual development (bauddhik vikas) and spiritual development (chaitsik vikas).

Vidya pravesh (entry level education) will enable Learning of ethical values and cultural diversity, and interaction with the physical, social and natural Environment, it said.

The government on Wednesday began the process of public consultations on the National Credit Framework (NCrF) which seeks to integrate academic and vocational domains to ensure flexibility and mobility between the two.

The NCrF has been proposed as part of the National Education Policy (NEP).

The NEP had envisioned the NCrF for opening numerous Options for inter-mingling of school and higher education with Vocational Education and experiential learning, thus mainstreaming skilling and vocational education. It will also enable students who have dropped out of the mainstream education to re-enter the education ecosystem.

The NCrF proposes to seamlessly integrate the credits earned through school education, higher education and vocational and skill education by encompassing the National Higher Education Qualification Framework (NHEQF), National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQ