CBSE unveiled a landmark change: starting 2026, students in Classes 6 to 8 across its affiliated schools will study a mandatory Skill Education curriculum, a shift away from rote memorisation toward hands-on, skill-based learning. Under the new framework, each school will dedicate roughly 110 hours per year (about 160 class periods) to skill-based activities, delivered through two consecutive periods weekly.
The curriculum is structured around three broad domains: working with living beings and nature (plants, local ecosystems, etc.), hands-on work with materials and simple machines (crafts, basic mechanics), and community or human-service-oriented tasks. Over three years, students will complete nine structured projects in these domains, marking a clear commitment to experiential learning over textbook-only instruction. In classrooms across India, this reform aims to reshape middle-school education by offering realistic, life-relevant skills, problem-solving, craft and design, environmental awareness, community service. Instead of focusing solely on exam performance, students will carry out practical projects: working with materials, caring for living organisms, understanding community needs.
However such ambitious reform also raises several challenges. For many schools especially those in rural or under-resourced areas, creating dedicated “Composite Skill Labs,” acquiring materials or tools, and training teachers for project-based pedagogy could be difficult. There are also concerns around academic load: with skill-education added to existing subjects, will middle-school students be overburdened? Uneven implementation may widen equity gaps, some schools may deliver rich, hands-on experiences, while others struggle to comply meaningfully. Lastly, assessment practices will need to change significantly, moving beyond written exams to observation, portfolios, project reviews, and presentations.
Despite these challenges, the reform has the potential to align India’s school system more closely with global best practices in education, placing creativity, practical knowledge, and real-world readiness at the core. For children, it can mean school becomes more than memorising facts; it becomes a space to explore, create, and learn by doing.
This vision resonates strongly with what we believe at Sesame Workshop India. From early childhood through foundational years, our approach to education emphasises play-based learning, exploration, emotional development, curiosity and inclusion. While CBSE’s new Skill Education framework addresses middle-school years, its underlying ethos that learning is lived, not just learnt echoes across our preschool and early learning programs.
At Sesame Workshop India, we believe children flourish when learning is joyful, relevant, and rooted in real life. Whether through storytelling, play, activities, or community engagement, learning becomes meaningful when children see its connection to their world. In that sense, CBSE’s shift toward hands-on learning is a welcome step in the same direction. For this transition to succeed, it will require more than structural change. It will need teacher training, resource allocation, empathy for the varied contexts of Indian schools, and careful monitoring. As advocates of early education and lifelong learning, we hope that as this skill-education model rolls out, it honours equity, creativity, and inclusion ensuring that every child, in every school, gets the chance to learn by doing.
Because ultimately, learning is more than what’s written in textbooks. It’s what we build, grow and imagine with our hands, minds, and communities.
References:
TOI Education. (2025, November 30). Explained: How CBSE’s new skill-based learning framework will reshape classes 6 to 8. The Times of India.