NEP 2020, FIRST EDUCATION POLICY OF 21st CENTURY

National Education Policy announced after 34 years!

This is the first education policy of 21st century and replaces the 34 years old National Policy on Education (NPE),1986.

The union cabinet on 29th of July has approved the National Education policy and also renamed the Ministry of Human Resource and Development as the Ministry of Education. It has made certain amendments in the earlier policy and added new provisions.We are now going to discuss important highlights in detail

Important highlights:

For school education-

• Ensuring universal access to all levels of school education- 

       Universal access to school education at all levels- pre school to secondary. Innovative education centres to bring back the dropouts.

• Pedagogical Structure-

Earlier structure of 10+2 (corresponding to ages 6-16 then 16-18) is to be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure (corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14 &14-18 years respectively).

 This will bring the age group 3 to 6  under school curriculum,    which has been recognized globally as the most crucial stage of child development. The new system will have 12 years of schooling with three years of pre schooling/ Anganwadi.

•  Attaining foundational Literacy and Numeracy-

 This includes setting up of a NATIONAL MISSION on         FOUNDATIONAL LITERACY and NUMERACY by MHRD .     National Book Promotion Policy is to be formulated.

• Reforms in school curricula and pedagogy-

Reduction in curricular content to enhance essential learning and critical thinking and emphasizing experimental learning! There will be no rigid separation between art and science, between curricular and extra- curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams. 

A new National Curricular Framework For School Education, NCFSE 2020-2021, will be developed by NCERT.

• Multilingualism and the power of language-

The policy emphasizes mother tongue/ regional language as the medium of instruction at least till Grade-5, but preferably till Grade-8 and beyond. Sanskrit to be offered at all levels of school and higher education as an option for students.

• Assessment reforms-

NEP 2020 envisages shift from SA to regular and FA. A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for holistic development) will be set up as standard setting body.

• Equitable and Inclusive Education

This includes setting up of Gender Inclusion Fund and Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups.every state will be encouraged to establish " Bal -Bhavans" as a special daytime boarding school.

• Robust Teacher Recruitment and Career Path-

A common National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by the National council for teacher Education by 2022.

 For Higher Education

• Increase GER to 50% by 2035-

NEP 2020 aims to increase the Gross Enrollment Ratio of higher education including vocational education from 26.3%(2018) to 50% by 2035. 3.5 crore new seats will be added to higher education institutions.

• Holistic multidisciplinary Education-

1. There will be flexible curricula,
2. An academic bank of credits is to be established for digitally storing academic credits, so that these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned.
3. 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.
4. The National Research Foundation will be created.

• Regulation-

  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. HECI to have four independent verticals- 

1.  For regulation- National Higher Education Regulatory Council.(NHERC).
2.  For standard setting- General Education Council (GEC).
3.  For funding- Higher Education Grants Council(HEGC).
4.  For accreditation- National Accreditation Council(NAC).

• Rationalised institutional Architecture

Higher education institution will be transformed into large, well resourced, vibrant multidisciplinary institutions.

There are certain other  provisions like:

1. Teacher education
2. Mentoring mission
3. Financial support for students
4. Open and distance learning
5. Online education and digital education
6. Technology in education
7. Promotion of indian languages
8. Internationalisation of education
9. Professional education
10. Adult education
11. Financing education

For further details, i'm providing you with the cabinet briefing youtube video-

well, I wish this change would have taken place a bit earlier😕 where students with non- medical stream and also having interest in cooking would have been able to choose 1 as major and other as minor ! Those who had to drop college because of financial or work reasons would have been able to resume their degree.We hope that these provisions will be implemented strictly and the target of  increase in GER to 50% which seems a bit unrealistic will be achieved successfully and will benefit the coming generation!

It seems that this new policy is built on the foundation of sustainable development, and  should prove to be more impacting and long lasting! It aims to transform India into a vibrant knowledge society and global knowledge superpower by making the education more holistic!