The New Education Policy 2020

In order to pave an innovative way for transformational reforms in school and higher education systems in the country, Union Cabinet on July 29, 2020, approves National Education Policy 2020,  from pre-school to secondary level with 100 % GER in school education by 2030. New Educational Policy, 2020 will replace 34 years old National Policy on Education, 1986.

Key features of the policy are as under:

Regulation:

• Higher Education Commission of India(HECI) will be set up as a single overarching umbrella body the for entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education;
• HECI to have four independent verticals – (i) National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) for regulation; (ii) General Education Council (GEC ) for standard setting; (iii) Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for funding; and (iv) National Accreditation Council( NAC) for accreditation.

Universal Access at all levels of School Education:

• Focus on infrastructure support, innovative education centers to bring back dropouts into the mainstream, tracking of students and their learning levels, facilitating multiple pathways to learning involving both formal and non-formal education modes, secondary education programs equivalent to Grades 10 and 12, vocational courses;
• About 2 crores out of school children will be brought back into main stream under NEP 2020.

Equitable and inclusive education

• In order that no child loses any opportunity to learn and excel, special emphasis would be given to socially economically disadvantaged group and children with disability by providing them training, resource facilities, accommodation, assistance devices, technology based tools and other supportive mechanisms.

Financial support for students:

• Efforts will be made to incentivize the merit of students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, and other SEDGs;
• The National Scholarship Portal will be expanded to support, foster, and track the progress of students receiving scholarships. Private HEIs will be encouraged to offer larger numbers of free ships and scholarships to their students.

Mentoring Mission:

• A National Mission for Mentoring will be established, with a large pool of outstanding senior/retired faculty – including those with the ability to teach in Indian languages – who would be willing to provide short and long-term mentoring/professional support to university/college teachers.

Promotion of Indian languages:

• To ensure the preservation, growth, and vibrancy of all Indian languages, NEP recommends setting an Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI), National Institute (or Institutes) for Pali, Persian and Prakrit, strengthening of Sanskrit and all language departments in HEIs, and use mother tongue/local language as a medium of instruction in more HEI programmes.
• Internationalization of education will be facilitated through both institutional collaborations, and student and faculty mobility and allowing entry of top world ranked Universities to open campuses in our country.

Multi-Lingual and power of language

• Mother tongue, power of local / regional language as medium of instruction at least till 5 grade, preferable upto grade 8 and beyond;
• Sanskrit to be offered at all levels as an optional language, including in the three language formula.

Assessment Reform:

• Shift from summative assessment to formative assessment focusing on competency and learning and development skills such as critical thinking and conceptual clarity.

Early Childhood Care &Education with new Curricular and Pedagogical Structure:

• 10+2 structure of curriculum to be replaced by new curricular structure as under:

Rationalised Institutional Architecture:

• Higher education institutions will be transformed into large, well resourced, vibrant multidisciplinary institutions providing high quality teaching, research, and community engagement;
• The definition of university will allow a spectrum of institutions that range from Research-intensive Universities to Teaching-intensive Universities and Autonomous degree granting Colleges.

Robust teacher recruitment and career path:

• Recruitment process for teachers to be conducted in robust, transparent manner;
• Promotions will be merit based with a mechanism for multi-sourced periodic performance appraisals and available progression paths;
• A common National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by the National Council for Teacher Education by 2022;

Professional Education:

• All professional education will be an integral part of the higher education system. Stand-alone technical universities, health science universities, legal and agricultural universities etc will aim to become multi-disciplinary institutions

GER increased to 50%

• Increase in Gross Enrolment ratio in higher education including vocational education to 50% by 2035. 3.5 crore new seats will be added to higher educational institutions.

Holistic Multidisciplinary Education:

• The policy envisages broad based, multi-disciplinary, holistic Under Graduate education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification. UG education can be of 3 or 4 years with multiple exit options and appropriate certification within this period. For example, Certificate after 1 year, Advanced Diploma after 2 years, Bachelor’s Degree after 3 years and Bachelor’s with Research after 4 years;
• An Academic Bank of Credit is to be established for digitally storing academic credits earned from different HEIs so that these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned;
• 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.

Open and Distance Learning:

• This will be expanded to play a significant role in increasing GER;
• Measures such as online courses and digital repositories, funding for research, improved student services, credit-based recognition of MOOCs, etc., will be taken to ensure it is at par with the highest quality in-class programmes.

Online Education and Digital Education:

• A comprehensive set of recommendations for promoting online education consequent to the recent rise in epidemics and pandemics in order to ensure preparedness with alternative modes of quality education whenever and wherever traditional and in-person modes of education are not possible, has been covered;
• A dedicated unit for the purpose of orchestrating the 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.

Technology in education:

• An autonomous body, the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), will be created to provide a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, administration.
• Appropriate integration of technology into all levels of education will be done to improve classroom processes, support teacher professional development, enhance educational access for disadvantaged groups and streamline educational planning, administration and management.

Above are the key features of New Educational Policy 2020. The dire need to change the 34 years old education system in India is need of the hour. As India is already building its growth story, the above mentioned changes would surely bring about much needed implementation in nurturing future of India.