National Education Policy, 2020 – an insight

National Education Policy, 2020 – An insight

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, approved by the cabinet, is the third policy of India formulated to promote elementary, secondary and higher education amongst the citizens and make India a knowledge global superpower. The first policy came out in 1968, with Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister. As education is one of the subjects in the concurrent list, the policy acts as a guideline instead of a law. The states are free to adopt and implement the policy along with its own regulations.

Prior to 2020, the Ministry of Human Resource (now called ‘Ministry of Education’) released a draft of the ‘New Economic Policy 2019’ succeeded by a host of public consultations. On 29^th of July, 2020, it was released after approval with certain changes in the draft.

Key features:

1. School Education

1. The existing pedagogical and curricular structure of 10+2 is proposed to be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 structure to bring in children of ages 3-6 in the ambit of schooling which was not included earlier. It also aims to maintain curricular continuity in the last four years.
2. Children of ages 8-11 are to be enrolled in a ‘preparatory class’, to be started in Kendriya Vidyalayas and other primary schools, especially in socially disadvantaged areas. The aim is to provide them with at least one year of early childhood care and education (ECCE). The mid-day meal scheme coupled with breakfasts in schools is to be extended to these preparatory classes too.
3. Three years of mandated Balvatika/Anganwadi/pre-schooling is to be made necessary before entering the preparatory stage.
4. Emphasis on the mother tongue of the students to be made the medium of instruction till class 5, continuing preferably till class 8, is to be put. The three-language formula of the policy states that amongst the three languages that a student will learn in his school life, chosen by the state, region and its students, two should be native to India.
5. For children with disabilities, participation in the normal schooling process is to be facilitated with the help of trained educators, resource centres, and procurement of essential technology for achieving so. National Sign language (NSL) is to be standardized across all schools and the curriculum is to be developed with its help for children with hearing impairment.
6. Content in the curriculum is to be reduced, and the study to be made more experimental and holistic. Coding is to be taught, starting class 6^th along with the introduction of students to internships opportunities.
7. The hard and fast classification into streams (such as humanities, science, commerce) and into curricular, extra-curricular and vocational and academic subjects is to be done away with giving equal weightage to every skill.
8. The National Testing Agency (NTA) is to be made responsible for conducting a high-quality common aptitude test as well as specialized common subject exams, twice a year, for entrance into universities.
9. In consultation with NCERT, the NCTE is to reform the curricular for teaching education and mandate the minimum qualification of teachers to be a 4-year B.Ed. degree.
10. National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and other open schools are going to offer open schooling opportunities to students of class 3^rd, 5^th and 8^th (A, B, C levels respectively), along with education programmes for class 10^th and 12^th.

1. Higher Education

1. A single umbrella body called the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) is to be set up for all higher education institutions(HEIs), excluding medical and legal education. Common rules and regulations are to be followed by both public and private institutions. Terms such as ‘deemed to be University’, ‘affiliating University’ etc., are to be done away with, enabling all such institutions to be called a University in the coming 15 years.
2. The Gross Enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education is targeted at 50% by 2035, a massive increase from the current GER of 26.3%, facilitated by the addition of 3-5 crore seats.
3. The undergraduate programme is to be of 3-4 years, with multiple exit options. Vocational certificate and advanced Diploma is to be provided for exiting the programme after the first and second year respectively. On completion of four years, a student is eligible to get a Bachelor’s degree with research.
4. Phil. programme is being discontinued. Thus, the students can now go for a PhD directly after their Masters’ degree. The universities are expected to become interdisciplinary by 2040, with a credit transfer system in place managed by the Academic Bank of Credits. Credits earned by a student from different HEIs are to be counted towards his/her final degree when they resume after a break (allowed for a fixed period prescribed by the HECI) from their undergraduate studies.
5. Emphasis on the promotion of research culture and building required research infrastructure is to be put through the establishment of the National Research Foundation (NRF) as an apex body.

Implementation & the expected challenges:

The NEP 2020, in itself, is surely a huge step towards reforming the education system in India at all levels, but even in this case, implementation is the key. For this, the Government has planned on the creation of committees for each subject in the NEP, responsible for listing down action plans for all the concerned bodies – NCERT, NTA, NCTE, Central Advisory Boards, School Boards and the Ministry itself. Given the requirement of heavy funding for these reforms, the Government in collaboration with the states has planned on an increase in expenditure on education to 6% of the GDP. At the end of each year, a joint review of the targets achieved in comparison to the targets set is to be done.

For the NEP 2020 to achieve its targets, it’s necessary that the institutions are supported by the Government, both financially and bureaucratically, with a clear path for them to follow. Also, the NEP doesn’t specify any strict time limit for implementation. Thus, the onus is on the Government to expedite its working as much as it can. To achieve a 100% GER for school education, digital technology has been relied upon in the policy. But given the current scenario, about 70% of the children are excluded from online schooling due to lack of digital infrastructure. Therefore, it will be a major challenge to bring them all under this one umbrella of uninterrupted schooling, keeping in mind the shortfalls in fulfilling the previous RTE criteria. Most importantly, the shift from rote learning to more holistic and experimental learning from the early years of schooling is nothing short of a paradigm shift for the Indian education system. It has to be kept in mind that about 90% of India’s population is struggling for financial stability, and the pandemic has only made matters worse. It will be a challenge to shift and ensure the focus of the children from education for a job, to education for both, job and skill enhancement.

NEP 2020, a new education policy after 34 long years, can improve many shortcomings in our long prevalent education system. But like all the policies and plans to not just sound positive on paper but have visible results too, its implementation will play a major role. Till then we can at least be hoping to see things change for the better in future with its aid.

cover image source: EdTechReview