Context :
Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the new National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 with an aim to introduce several changes in the Indian education system - from the school to college level.
In News :
•The
NEP 2020 aims at making “India a global knowledge
superpower”.
•The
Cabinet has also approved the renaming of
the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the Ministry
of Education.
•The
NEP cleared by the Cabinet is only the third major revamp
of the framework of education in India since
independence.
•The two
earlier education policies were brought in 1968
and 1986.
Education
In India
•Constitutional
Provisions:
•Part IV of
Indian Constitution, Article 45 and Article 39
(f) of
Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP), has a provision for state-funded
as well as equitable and accessible education.
•The 42nd Amendment
to the Constitution in 1976 moved education from the
State to the Concurrent List.
•The education policies by the
Central government provides a broad direction and state governments are
expected to follow it. But it is not mandatory, for
instance Tamil Nadu does not follow the three-language formula prescribed by
the first education policy in 1968.
•The 86th Amendment
in 2002 made
education an enforceable right under Article 21-A.
•Related
Laws:
•Right To Education (RTE) Act,
2009 aims
to provide primary education to all children
aged 6 to 14 years and enforces education as a
Fundamental Right.
•It also mandates 25%
reservation for disadvantaged sections of the society where
disadvantaged groups
•Government
Initiatives:
•Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid
Day Meal Scheme, Navodaya Vidyalayas
(NVS schools), Kendriya
Vidyalayas
(KV schools) and use of IT in education are a result of the NEP of 1986.
Key Highlights of NEP 2020 :
School Education :
•Universalization of education from preschool to secondary level with 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in school education by 2030.
•To bring 2 crore out of school children
back into the mainstream through an open
schooling system.
•The current 10+2 system to be replaced by a new 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years
respectively.
•It will bring the uncovered age group
of 3-6 years under school curriculum, which has been recognized globally as
the crucial stage
for development of mental faculties of a child.
•It will also have 12 years of schooling
with three years of Anganwadi/ pre schooling.
•Class
10 and 12 board examinations to be made easier, to
test core competencies rather than memorised
facts, with all students allowed to take the exam twice.
•School
governance is
set to change, with a new accreditation framework and
an independent authority to regulate both public and
private schools.
•Emphasis
on Foundational
Literacy and Numeracy, no rigid separation between
academic streams, extracurricular, vocational streams in schools.
•Vocational
Education to
start from Class 6 with Internships.
•Teaching
up to at least
Grade 5 to
be in mother
tongue/regional language. No language will be imposed
on any student.
•Assessment
reforms with 360 degree Holistic Progress
Card, tracking
Student Progress for achieving Learning Outcomes
•Equitable
and Inclusive Education
•Special emphasis will be given
on Socially and Economically
Disadvantaged Groups(SEDGs) which include gender,
socio-cultural, and geographical identities and disabilities.
•The policy also includes setting
up of a Gender Inclusion
Fund and also Special Education Zones for
disadvantaged regions and groups.
•Children with disabilities will
be enabled to fully participate in the regular schooling process.
•Every state/district will be
encouraged to establish “Bal Bhavans” as
a special daytime boarding school, to participate in art-related,
career-related, and play-related activities.
•Free school infrastructure can be
used as Samajik
Chetna Kendras.
•Indian knowledge systems,
including tribal and indigenous knowledge,
will also be incorporated into the curriculum in an accurate and scientific
manner.
•Robust
Teacher Recruitment and Career Path
•Teachers will be recruited
through robust and transparent processes.
•A new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education,NCFTE, 2021 will be formed by NCERT. Also, by 2030 the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4- year integrated B.Ed degree.
•A common National
Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will
be developed by the National Council for Teacher Education by 2022, in
consultation with NCERT, SCERTs, teachers and expert organizations from across
levels and regions.
•Standard-setting
and Accreditation for School Education
•States/UTs will set up an independent
State School Standards Authority (SSSA).
•Transparent public
self-disclosure of all the basic regulatory information,
as laid down by the SSSA, will be used extensively for public
oversight and accountability.
•The SCERT will develop a School
Quality Assessment and Accreditation Framework (SQAAF) through
consultations with all stakeholders.
Higher Education :
•Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education to be raised to 50% by 2035. Also, 3.5 crore seats to be added in higher
education.
•The current Gross
Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education is 26.3%.
•Holistic Undergraduate education with a
flexible curriculum can be of 3
or 4 years with multiple exit options and
appropriate certification within this period.
•M.Phil courses
will be discontinued and all the courses at
undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD level will now be interdisciplinary.
•Academic Bank of Credits to be established to facilitate
Transfer of Credits.
•Multidisciplinary Education and Research
Universities (MERUs), at
par with IITs, IIMs, to be set up as models of best multidisciplinary education
of global standards in the country.
•The National
Research Foundation will
be created as an apex
body for fostering a strong research
culture and building research capacity across higher education.
•Higher Education Commission of India
(HECI) will be set up as a single umbrella body for the entire higher
education, excluding
medical and legal education. Public
and private higher education institutions will be governed by the same set of norms for regulation, accreditation and
academic standards. Also, HECI will be having four independent verticals namely,
•National Higher Education Regulatory
Council (NHERC) for regulation,
•General Education Council (GEC) for standard setting,
•Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC)
for funding,
•National Accreditation Council (NAC)
for accreditation.
•Affiliation of colleges is to be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism to be
established for granting graded autonomy to colleges.
•Over a
period of time,
every college is expected to develop into either an autonomous degree-granting
College, or a constituent college of a university.
•Open
and distance learning
•This will be expanded to play a
significant role in increasing the gross enrollment ratio.
•Measures such as online courses
and digital repositories, funding for research, improved student services, etc
will be taken.
•Online
and digital education
•A comprehensive set of
recommendations for promoting online education consequent
to the pandemic in order to ensure preparedness
has been covered.
•A dedicated unit for the purpose
building of digital infrastructure, digital content and capacity building will
be created in the MHRD to look after the e-education needs of both school and
higher education.
•Students will begin classes
on coding as well as vocational activities from Class 6 onwards.
•Technology
in Education
•An autonomous body, the National
Educational Technology Forum (NETF), will
be created to provide a platform for free exchange of ideas on the use of
technology.
•Adult
Education
•The policy aims to achieve
100% youth and adult literacy.
•Financing
education
•The central government and state
governments will work together to increase the public investment in the
education sector to reach 6% of GDP at the earliest.
Language issue
•Provisions
in the original draft: Language issues caused the most
outrage at that time, because the original
draft had called for mandatory teaching of Hindi to
all school students.
•Greater
flexibility in the new policy:
•However, the final policy
document makes it clear that no language will be imposed
on any State.
•The three languages learned by
children will be the choices of States,
regions, and of also the students themselves, so
long as at least two of the three languages are native to India.
•Classical
languages:
•Sanskrit will be offered as an
option at all levels of school and
higher education.
•Other classical languages will
also be available, possibly as online modules, while foreign languages will be
offered at the secondary level.
•Mother
tongue
•Wherever possible, the medium of
instruction until at least Grade 5, but
preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will
be the home language/ mother-tongue/ local language/ regional language.
•According to the new policy, this
will be followed by both public and private
schools.
Significance of The National Education Policy, 2020 :
•Coverage:
The policy seeks to address the entire gamut of education from preschool to
doctoral studies, and from professional degrees to vocational training.
•Acknowledges
the 21st-century need: It recognizes the need for
mobility, flexibility, alternate pathways to learning, and self-actualization.
•Recognizes
the primacy of the formative years
•The 2020 policy attempts to break
free from the shackles of the past.
•By adopting a 5+3+3+4 model
for school education starting at age
3, it recognizes the primacy of the
formative years from ages 3 to 8 in shaping the child’s future.
•For the first
time, early childhood education has been brought in the mainframe.
•Recognizes
the importance of learning in the mother tongue
•The policy also recognizes the
importance of learning in the child’s mother tongue till
at least Class 5.
•Multilingual felicity could
become the USP of the educated Indian.
•New
methodologies for attaining the GER target
•The new policy envisages a 100%
Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in school education by 2030.
•NEP 2020 proposes a
multi-disciplinary higher education framework with portable credits, and
multiple exits with certificates, diplomas, and degrees.
•The role of our colleges in
attaining the ambitious GER target is recognized by empowering them as autonomous
degree-granting institutions, and
phasing out the affiliated colleges.
•The policy also envisages to
utilize the huge potential of online pedagogy and
learning methodologies for attaining the GER
target.
•NEP also lays particular emphasis
on providing adequate support to
ensure that no child is deprived of education, and
every challenged child is provided the special support she needs.
•A
“light but tight” oversight
•NEP 2020 makes a bold
prescription to free our schools, colleges, and universities from periodic
“inspections” and place them on the path of self-assessment
and voluntary declaration.
•Transparency, maintaining quality
standards, and a favorable public perception will become a 24X7 pursuit for the
institutions, leading to all-round improvement in their standard.
•Higher Education Commission of
India(HECI), a single body with four verticals
for standards-setting, funding, accreditation, and regulation is proposed to
provide “light but tight” oversight.
•An
ambitious target of public spending
•All the targets in the field
require enormous resources. The policy has also set an ambitious target
of public spending at 6% of GDP.
•Other
benefits
•Provision of an energy-filled
breakfast, in addition to the nutritious mid-day meal,
to help children achieve better learning outcomes is a good step.
•The creation of ‘inclusion
funds’ to help socially and educationally disadvantaged children pursue
education.
Problems in the new policy :
•The
problem with the new policy is that there
is no clarity on how it is to be implemented and
does not break-free from the pressures of the old education system.
•It
is being said that the NEP is a poorly
funded and highly regulated policy that
has multiple regulatory bodies that
will end up clashing with each other.
•In the last six years the
education budget has actually reduced.
Therefore, reaching the target of six percent seems difficult.
•Needed
more tangible and realizable targets
•There is a goal of a 50 percent
gross enrolment ratio in higher education and 100 percent in secondary schools.
However, it could be tough since it was currently 25.8% in high education &
68% in Class 9.
•The NEP should have offered more
tangible and realizable targets for research.
•Total investment in research and
innovation in India declined from 0.84% of GDP in 2008 to 0.6%
in 2018.
•There are currently only
15 researchers in India per 100,000 of the population, compared
with 111 in China.
•Burden
on the existing school infrastructure
•The NEP 2020 had also left
many unanswered questions on the
upgrade of school infrastructure and
shortage of qualified and trained teachers.
•Placing the burden of pre-primary
education on the overstretched,
under-funded, and under-equipped anganwadis can
be disastrous.
•Centralizing
tendencies
•It is being said that the policy
is an attempt to lead to total privatization,
commercialization, and over-centralization.
•This may result in higher
fees, attacks on the autonomy of universities, and no
permanent jobs in teaching.
•Not
enough provisions for removing digital divide
•India’s digital divide that has
been highlighted and deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
•Disparities between the rich and
poor, urban and rural, show up strikingly in access
to digital tools.
•The
policy does not talk about how to
improve government schools but encourages private ones.
•The
new policy does not mention doing away
with rote learning and moving to a continuous assessment model
instead.
•The
new policy is also completely silent
on sports.
Way Forward :
•Implementation
of the new policy
•Education is a concurrent list
subject, also most states have their
own school boards.
•Therefore, the state
governments would have to be brought on board for
the actual implementation of this decision.
•The idea
of a National Higher Education Regulatory Council as an apex control organisation is
bound to be resented by States.
•Similarly, a national body for
aptitude tests would have to convince the States of its merits.
•Progress
on this crucially depends on the will to
spend the promised 6% of GDP as public expenditure on
education.
•Among
the many imperatives, the deadline to achieve universal literacy and numeracy
by 2025 should be a top priority that will crucially determine progress at
higher levels.
The National Education Policy 2020 provides the right ingredients and the recipe; what we make of it depends entirely on us. It needs to be realised that the real test of a policy is on the ground not just on paper.
Credit : ASSOCHAM , TH , PIB , MoHRD
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