Education systems around the world are driven by a curriculum that is very rigid and driven by teachers. The Five Areas of Development allow learners and their parents to share what they want their children to learn and the schools incorporate this into their curriculum. The learning process is also driven forward by Roadmaps designed by the student with support from their mentors.
Students and teachers collect inputs from their communities such as food recipes, indigenous games, patterns, songs, dances and language as well as expectations which become an integral part of the curriculum. These expectations are added to the students Roadmaps designed in the Five Areas of Development. A sample of a student Roadmap can be accessed here A collection of student Roadmap becomes the group Roadmaps. The Domain (subject) Heads incorporate the insights from group Roadmaps into the Domain Roadmaps. The Domain Roadmaps are used by the Five Coordinators to create Area of Development Roadmaps.
There is a strong focus on assessing students against themselves, not each other through the creation of individual Roadmaps. Indicators of success outlined in the Roadmaps, along with anecdotes from self and teachers form the basis of assessment.
A short video from the innovator, Mr Arun Kapur, can be viewed here - https://swiy.io/Innovator_hundrED
This innovation has been adopted by Pallavan School, Jhalawar, India and Paradise Valley school, Oman, and 22 schools in Bhutan.
In 2021, the Ministry of Education, Bhutan adopted the Five Areas of Development as the driving force behind the Education Reforms in Bhutan. To this effect, the innovation is transitioning to the Five Areas of Development in Dechencholing Higher Secondary School and Wangbama Central School. The Five Areas will be adopted in 20 more schools in Bhutan in 2022.
In September 2021, Five Areas of Development has been nominated as a finalist for Falling Walls 2021 in the category, Future Learning.
School community collects aspirations from the students and teachers. Roadmaps are created by the students, groups, domains and Areas of Development. This could also include stories, indigenous games, recipe, etc.
The Roadmap in the Five Areas of Development guides the assessment of the students in the Five Areas.
Qualitative reports are generated based on indicators of success of the Roadmaps