Volume 15, Issue 8 · IJARST · ISSN 2319-1783 / 2320-1126

Outcome-Based Education in the Life Sciences: A Comprehensive Review of Undergraduate Botany and Zoology Curricula under NEP 2020

Outcome-Based Education in the Life Sciences: A Comprehensive Review of Undergraduate Botany and Zoology Curricula under NEP 2020 is an open-access, peer-reviewed research paper by Prince Thakur, Vivek Chand, Pooja, published in Volume 15, Issue 8 of the International Journal of Advanced Research in Science and Technology (IJARST), a UGC-approved journal (Print ISSN 2319-1783, Online ISSN 2320-1126).

Author

Prince Thakur, Vivek Chand, Pooja

Abstract

Abstract: The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has re-oriented Indian higher education from a teacher-centric, content-delivery model toward a learner-centric, Outcome-Based Education (OBE) paradigm operationalised through the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUGP), the National Higher Education Qualifications Framework (NHEQF) and the Learning Outcomes-based Curriculum Framework (LOCF). It examines how OBE is embedded in undergraduate botany and zoology across public universities of nine north and north-west Indian states and union territories: Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Delhi. It covers OBE's conceptual basis; the architecture of Programme, Programme-Specific and Course Outcomes, with CO–PO mapping and constructive alignment; and the credit menu of Major, Minor, Multidisciplinary, Ability, Skill and Value-Added Courses. It rates institutional systems on outcome articulation, practical and field training, assessment maturity, CO–PO mapping and NEP alignment, and proposes an original Integrated Life-Sciences OBE (ILS-OBE) framework linking curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, infrastructure, industry–community linkage, graduate attributes and quality improvement. Two discipline-specific transitions receive attention: “plant blindness”, and zoology practicals after the restriction of dissection. Every rating rests on the institution's own documents, several published only as unsearchable scans. The central finding is negative and general: not one curriculum examined publishes a CO–PO matrix, an attainment target or a rubric, and most carry no programme-outcome tier, including the most-cited exemplars. Structural convergence is substantial, but the apparatus that would make outcomes measurable is largely unbuilt, and attainment depends less on syllabus design than on faculty capacity, practical infrastructure and the integrity of the attainment cycle.

Keywords: Outcome-Based Education; life sciences; NEP 2020; CO–PO mapping; Bloom’s taxonomy; FYUGP; outcome attainment; continuous quality improvement.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62226/ijarst20262756

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DOI

10.62226/ijarst20262756

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Prince Thakur, Vivek Chand, Pooja — “Outcome-Based Education in the Life Sciences: A Comprehensive Review of Undergraduate Botany and Zoology Curricula under NEP 2020.” International Journal of Advanced Research in Science and Technology (IJARST), Volume 15, Issue 8. DOI: 10.62226/ijarst20262756.

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