According to the research, on 29th July 2020, the Government of PM Narendra Modi approved the ‘National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020)‘, with an aim to alter India’s education system by 2040. The NEP has implemented lots of educational reforms in both the tertiary education sector and schools. This is intended to bring about systematic reforms in the education sector rather than gradual reforms.
The NEP 2020 is the first education policy of the 21st century and purposes to solve our country’s current developmental imperatives. The Policy suggests the revision and revamping of all aspects of the current education structure, including its governance and regulation, to build a new education system which is on par with the aspiration objectives of 21stcentury education. Also, the New Policy renamed the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) as the Ministry of Education in a bid to take the focus back on education and learning. If implemented as the plan, the new norms will be able to reduce regulatory hassles, promote autonomy, and benefit the students, education providers and the labor market.
PRINCIPLES OF NEP (NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY) 2020
The foundational principles of NEP 2020 are Access, Affordability, Accountability, Equity, and Quality. The Policy believes that the education system must develop good human beings with rational thinking, courage, compassion, creative imagination, empathy, ethical values, scientific temper, and resilience. These are the fundamental principles of the Policy:
- Recognizing, Identifying, and Strengthening the capabilities of each student.
- Promoting each student’s holistic development in both academic and non-academic spheres.
- Reaching Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in all students by Grade 3
- Flexibility for learners to select their learning trajectories and programs, and thereby select their paths as per their talents and interests
- No hard separations between sciences and arts, curricular and extracurricular activities, academic streams and vocational, among others to eliminate harmful hierarchies and silos in areas of learning.
- A holistic education across the sciences, arts, humanities, social sciences, and sports to make sure that the unity and integrity of all knowledge
- Promotion of Multilingualism and the Power of Language in learning and teaching.
- Life Skills such as cooperation, communication, teamwork, and resilience.
- Regular formative assessment for learning instead of the summative assessment.
- Full Equity and inclusion as the basis of all educational decisions.
- The teachers and Faculty as the heart of the learning process.
- Regulatory framework which is light but tight to promote integrity, transparency and resource efficiency of the educational system
- Compulsive innovation and out of the-box opinion and ideas through Autonomy, Good Governance and Empowerment
A VISION OF NEP (NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY) 2020
NEP or National Education Policy 2020 envisions an India education system which gives high-quality education to all, so that altering India sustainable into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society in the world.
OBJECTIVES AND REFORMS OF NEP (NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY) 2020
The NEP 2020 opens for numerous significant changes in the Indian education system. The changes and objectives of NEP 2020 for School Education are as below:
- The current ‘10+2’ structure covering ages 6-18 to be replaced by a new Pedagogical and Curricular Structure of ‘5+3+3+4’ corresponding to ages 3-18.
- Instead of annual examinations every year, now the students will only attend the exams in Class 3, 5 and 8.
- Class 10 and 12 Board Exams are going to be conducted as usual, but the exams are going to be made easier by allowing the students to take exams twice a year. The exam is going to have two parts; Descriptive and Objective.
- Universal standards of learning and regulations in public and private schools
- Vocational Education and coding is going to be introduced from Class 6
- Mother tongue/Regional language to be the medium of instruction at least up to Class 5.
- Report cards are going to be a 360 degree Holistic Progress Card which will give a comprehensive report on skills and capabilities instead of just marks and grades.
- Focus on the curriculum to core the concepts
- Universalization of education from Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) to the Secondary Level.
- Reaching 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in school education by 2030.
- The new National Curriculum Framework for ECE (Early Childhood Educator), Schools, Teachers and adult Students.
- Open Schooling System to take two crore ‘Out Of School Children’ back into the mainstream.
- Deployment of counselors and social workers to improve the student’s mental health.
- The midday meal scheme to be extended to include breakfasts.
NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY (NEP) – MAKING IT HAPPEN
You have to know that the reforms and objectives of the NEP (National Education Policy) 2020 are provided from a broader perspective, and it is not mandatory for state governments to follow them. Therefore, as both central and state governments are able to create their own laws on education, the proposed reforms are able to be implemented if both the governments work collaboratively. But, this will not happen immediately. The Government of PM Narendra Modi has already set a target of 2040 to finish the entire Policy. Aside from that, sufficient funding is imperative for the full implementation of the NEP (National Education Policy) 2020 as a shortage of funds crippled the 1968 NPE. The central and state governments must substantially increase the spending on education to attain the goals with excellence and the corresponding multitude of social economic benefits.
As far now, the Indian Government is planning to organize subject wise committees with the members from relevant central and state ministries in order for developing implementation plans for each aspect of NEP (National Education Policy). They are going to list action plans for multiple bodies, including the HRD Ministry, State Education Departments, NCERT, Central Advisory Board of Education, School Boards, and National Testing Agency. Yearly joint reviews of the progress of the implementation of the Policy can be conducted against the targets set.
