India gets a Bold, Radical and Progressive National Education Policy. Key is the implementation!

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, approved the National Education Policy 2020 on 29 July 2020, making way for large scale, transformational reforms in both school and higher education sectors.

The new policy aims to make India a “Knowledge Superpower” and to enable an individual to study one or more specialized areas of interest at a deep level, and also develop character, scientific temper, creativity, spirit of service, and 21st century capabilities across a range of disciplines. The policy looks at achieving 50% gross enrolment ratio by 2035.

All State/UT governments will prepare an implementation plan for attaining universal foundational literacy and numeracy in all primary schools for all learners by grade 3 to be achieved by 2025. The Policy aims at moving India closer to achieving its goal of the United Nation’s SDG 4 of the 2030 agenda, that of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. It aims at raising the overall public spending on education in India to 6% of GDP at the earliest. Also, Ministry of Human Resource Development has been renamed as Ministry of Education.

Key Highlights:

On School Education:

New Pedagogical and curricular structure: The extant 10+2 structure in school education will be modified with a new pedagogical and curricular restructuring of 5+3+3+4 covering ages 3-18. Currently, children in the age group of 3-6 are not covered in the 10+2 structure as Class 1 begins at age 6. In the new 5+3+3+4 structure, a strong base of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) from age 3 is also included. The first three years would be formative play school years of nursery and Kindergarten. The structure would cover students from ages of 3 to 18 years.

Day time boarding school: 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.

No rigid separation: Students will have increased flexibility and choice of subjects. There will be no rigid separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams. Vocational education will start in schools from the 6th grade and will include internships.

Importance of board exam to be reduced; aim to promote knowledge application: The exam can be conducted twice a year: In order to reduce the importance and stress of board exam. It will be conducted in two parts: Objective and descriptive.

Recruitment of teachers: Teachers will be recruited through robust, transparent processes. Promotions will be merit-based, with a mechanism for multi-source periodic performance appraisals and available progression paths to become educational administrators or teacher educators. 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.

360-degree holistic report card for students: Students will get 360-degree holistic report card,which will not only inform about the marks obtained, but also their skills and other important points.

On Institutions:

Single Regulator: The policy also aims at “light but tight” regulation by a single regulator for higher education as well as increased access, equity, and inclusion. Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as a single overarching umbrella body for entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education.

HECI to have four independent verticals: National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) for regulation, General Education Council (GEC) for standard setting, Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for funding, and National Accreditation Council (NAC) for accreditation. HECI will function through faceless intervention through technology and will have powers to penalize HEIs not conforming to norms and standards. Public and private higher education institutions will be governed by the same set of norms for regulation, accreditation, and academic standards. UGC, AICTE to be replaced by a single Higher Education Regulator.

National Research Foundation (NRF) to be established: A National Research Foundation (NRF) will be established. The overarching goal of the NRF will be to enable a culture of research to permeate through universities. The NRF will be governed, independently of the government, by a rotating Board of Governors consisting of the very best researchers and innovators across fields.

New standard setting body: A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), will be set up as a standard-setting body.

On Higher Education:

Rationalized Institutional Architecture: Single-stream higher education institutions will be phased out; all will move towards becoming multidisciplinary. The system of ‘affiliated colleges’ will be gradually phased out in 15 years.

The present nomenclature such as ‘deemed to be university’, ‘affiliating university’, ‘affiliating technical university’, ‘unitary university’ will be done away with. To be replaced simply by ‘university’. A university will mean a multidisciplinary institution that offers undergraduate and graduate programs, with high quality teaching, research, and community engagement. The definition will allow a spectrum of institutions ranging from those that place equal emphasis on teaching and research i.e., Research-intensive Universities to teaching-intensive Universities.

Financial Autonomy to be given to 45000 affiliated colleges: Under Graded Autonomy, Academic, Administrative & Financial Autonomy will be given to colleges, on the basis of the status of their accreditation.

NTA to offer common entrance exam: The National Testing Agency (NTA) will offer a high-quality common aptitude test, as well as specialized common subject exams in the sciences, humanities, languages, arts, and vocational subjects, at least twice every year for university entrance exams.

Holistic Multidisciplinary Education: The undergraduate degree will be of either 3 or 4-year duration, with multiple exit options. For instance, a certificate after completing 1 year in a discipline or field including vocational and professional areas, or a diploma after 2 years of study, or a bachelor’s degree after a 3-year program. The 4-year multidisciplinary bachelor’s program, however, shall be the preferred option. PG programs– 1/2 years, integrated 5-year bachelor's/Master’s, M Phil to be discontinued. An Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) to be established which would digitally store the credits earned. Model public universities for holistic and multidisciplinary education, at par with IITs, IIMs, etc., called MERUs (Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities) will be set up. The NEP lays down that by 2040, all higher education institutions (HEIs) shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions, each of which will aim to have 3,000 or more students. There shall, by 2030, be at least one large multidisciplinary institution in or near every district.

Best universities to set up campuses in other countries: High performing Indian universities will be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries. Selected universities like those from among the top 100 universities in the world will be facilitated to operate in India. A legislative framework facilitating such entry will be put in place, and such universities will be given special dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms on par with other autonomous institutions.

On Equity and Inclusiveness in Education:

E-content in regional language: There will e- content in regional language apart from English and Hindi. E courses to be in eight major languages not just English and Hindi. In every educational institution, there shall be counselling systems for handling stress and emotional adjustments.

Inclusiveness: NEP 2020 aims to ensure that no child loses any opportunity to learn and excel because of the circumstances of birth or background. Special emphasis will be given on Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs) which include girl child, socio-cultural, and geographical identities and disabilities. This includes setting up of 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 from the foundational stage to higher education, with support of educators with cross disability training, resource centres, accommodations, assistive devices, appropriate technology-based tools and support mechanisms tailored to suit their needs.

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