MY ANALYSIS OF THE NEW EDUCATION POLICY 2020,INDIA

My analysis of the New Education Policy 2020,India

While it is a very comprehensive policy I shall look at some major points and the key concerns of the policy.

1.Merging of multiple higher education regulators like the University Grants Commission, All Indian Council of Technical Education and National Council of Teacher Education will remove the myriad of instructions and hence reduce the complexity of regulation.

2.The discontinuance of the affiliation system in university level the new methodology of categorization of the Universities into research focused universities, teaching focused universities, autonomous colleges will ensure a healthy precedent for the future.

3.The new concept of "academic credit bank" that would allow multiple entry and exit options to and from educational courses is a great step especially the working professionals who now have an option to come back and pursue education from where they left.

4.The introduction of Special Education Zones (SEZs) in the line of the 'Special Economic Zone' to promote indigenous manufacturing and exports of goods and services is a very innovative idea .Much like industrial SEZs which are independent,dedicated and largely incentivized centers of production and exports the Special Education Zones is to be a way forward to create local knowledge hubs while also incentivising foreign universities to operate independently in India.

5.Lowering the stakes of school board examination and increasing the significance on-the-ground internship at the school level in a scenario where exams remain the sole reason of learning and virtual absence of the joy of learning in India is yet another welcome step.Also the increased emphasis is being given Mathematics and computational thinking which is a major weak links of most of the students in India hampering their growth in the later stages of life.

But the real challenge lies in the uniform implementation of a policy in a country which is having highest degrees of diversities of educational deliveries,financing and requirements.

This becomes precariously difficult when the quality of education is more of the worry than the structural issues of education.The complaint of the industry is a valid one when it says that most of the graduates passing out from colleges and Universities are unemployable.

We cannot hope and wish to teach our children in Hindi/Sanskrit/Local languages for the chunk of their schooling years as proposed by the policy and expect them to be well taken in a job market which fortunately or unfortunately prizes the knowledge of English in both written and verbal forms over any regional language.Most of the quality material of all studies,almost all the e-content and virtually every technical learning are available largely in English only. The mode of communication in industry,academia and governments is English.The thrust of the policy should be correct this imbalance now and remove this apartheid of language to undertake all our endeavors in English only.

Another major drawback of the policy is its feeble focus on academic and scientific research.India's total spending in the area of Research,Innovation and associated works is a meagre 0.84% of the GDP compared with in China 2.2% of its GDP and the United States around 2.75 % of its GDP. In absolute numbers it translates to India spending around US $ 66 Billions compared to over US $ 500 Billion dollars by the Chinese and the Americans. and currently we have less than 15 researchers per lakh of the population.

However it is good step forward and the policy has a strong imprints of realism,inclusivity and output-focus rather than input-centric.