National Education Policy, 2020

Vijaya Gupta | School of Law, Bennett University | 4th August 2020

Introduction

Education is a process in which people cultivate various skills, learnings, values, beliefs, and gain knowledge in a particular field. Education is a tool that helps the person to achieve success and helps to build the future of the person and the country. Every person in the world has the fundamental right to education. 

Every democratic country has an aim to make rules and regulations for the welfare of the people and education being the part for the welfare of the people, it is necessary to make a proper education system for the children. In India, education is an essential part of every person. Therefore, in 1986, the National Education Policy was formulated and implemented during the Rajiv Gandhi rule. The education policy was introduce with the recommendations of the K committee. The main aim of the policy was that education is necessary for every child and each should get an education without any discrimination.

Recently, under the leadership of the BJP government, the HRD ministry proposed a new National Education Policy and the Union Cabinet approved the policy on 31st July 2020. Also, the Union of Human and Ministry Development has changed the name to the Ministry of Education. It was changed to focus more on education and learning. The new National Education Policy (NEP) has many new reforms in school and higher education including the teaching process. It has not only focused on the education of the children but also focused on the method of teaching and the use of technology for providing the education. The top priority of the policy is to provide education to as many children as possible who had drop their education and prevent further students to take a drop and achieve a goal of 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio by 2030. 

REFORMS OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY, 2020

• Pre-school also included in the mandatory schooling

The National Education Policy, 2020 has expanded the schooling age of a child from 6-18 years of age to 3-18 years of age. As per the policy, pre-school has been included as a mandatory part of the schooling. The reason for the pre-school to be mandatory schooling because the child should get early childhood education in the form of formal schooling. The pre-school is considered as a formal education as per the global standards.  The pre-schools will be added in every government and private school in the country including the disadvantaged areas.

• Education structure is reformed

The National Education Policy, 1986 followed the 10+2 structure of the school curriculum under which schooling was covered under two parts which were from Class 1-10 and Class 11-12. However, in the new NEP, 2020, the structure of the school curriculum of NEP, 1986 was amended and has become a 5+3+3+4 structure of the school curriculum. This means that the education will be divided into 4 stages i.e. foundational stage, preparatory age, middle age, and secondary stage corresponding to the ages 3-8, 8-11, 1-14, and 14-18 respectively. 

• Mother tongue as a medium of instruction 

The policy states that the medium of instruction by the school should be in the mother tongue until Grade 5. There is no discretion between the public and private schools for this rule. The government has followed the three-language formula in the policy. The government believes that a student learns more quickly in their home language. The idea of this rule was taken from the European education system where every child needs to adapt to the local language.  Therefore, it is necessary to give instructions until Grade 5 although it is not compulsory for the states to apply this rule. 

• Flexibility in the choice of subjects

The policy has removed the streams of arts, science, and commerce from the policy. The policy gives leverage to the students to choose any subjects from any stream. It can be from either stream, vocational or non-vocational course, curricular, or extra-curricular activities. 

• Board exams would test the knowledge and not rote learning

The NEP states that the Board exams will test whether the students have understood the core concept of a subject and not test based on rote learning. The Board exam will have application based questions which will be in both objective and subjective pattern. This will help the student to learn about the topic properly. The student will be allowed to give Board exams twice a year.

• Institutional Restructuring and Consolidation

Higher education is also an integral part of education. There are many problems faced by the higher education system in India. The major problem is the higher education system is not focusing on the skill and development of the students. Education is not only learning about a particular topic, but it is also necessary to develop the skills of every student as it is equally important as learning a topic. Therefore, to overcome this challenge, the NEP, 2020 stated that the higher education institutions would move towards the large multidisciplinary universities which will focus on the graduates and undergraduates’ programs with high quality of teaching and community engagement. It is also stated that by 2040, all the higher education institutions will become large multidisciplinary institutions. By 2035, the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education will increase from 26.3% to 50%. 

• Multiple entries and exits in an undergraduate and graduate program

The policy states the undergraduate degree will be either of 3 or 4 years and it will also provide multiple entries and exit options. This means that a student can exit the degree at point of time and return to complete their degree at any point of time. The institution must provide certifications whenever the student decided to have multiple exits. E.g. certificate after completing 1 year in a discipline or field including vocational and professional areas, certificate of diploma after completing 2 years or bachelor’s degree after completing 3 years of study. The policy also included that the postgraduate programme will be of 1-2 years only. The policy stated that M. Phil will be discontinued. 

• There were also many rules formulated in the NEP, 2020 such as the set up of MERU (Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities), the autonomous-granting colleges will evolve into research-institute and teaching-institute and many more. It was also informed that the Government will introduce an Academic Bank of Credit in digital form by storing the academic credits from different institutions and used in the final degree. 

OTHER REFORMS IN THE NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY, 2020

1. India will be promoted as a global study destination for students all over the world and provide education at an affordable rate. 
2. There would be only educationally sound, multidisciplinary, and integrated teachers in force by 2030. This action was taken to improve the quality of teaching and provide good quality content for teaching. By the implementation of the policy, the minimum qualification of a teacher will be 4 years integrated B.Ed. 
3. The students will be taught coding from Grade 6 as technology is considered as an important part of life. This decision will help the student to bring new and creative ideas by using technology and also it will help the country to develop more in the field of technology. 
4. To address the issues of Higher Education Institutions, the policy has framed four independent verticals under the Higher Education Commission of India. They are: 1) National Higher Education Regulatory Council, 2) National Accreditation Council 3) Higher Education Grants Council 4) General Education Council.
5. The school will provide with 360- degree holistic report card of every student. The report will not just only focus on the marks of the student, but it will be a detailed report which includes the progress of the student, skills of the student. This report will also help the teachers so that they could learn about the skills of the student and how they could support them. 
6. The policy has also focused on the use of technology for education so that no student can stop their education in the times of epidemics and pandemics. 

CONCLUSION

The new National Education Policy, 2020 has brought a new and different approach to the education system of India. There are both positive and negative aspects of the policy. The policy will help the students to have knowledge in every field and able to develop their skills and core concepts. It will also encourage the students to learn and gain knowledge as there would be a change in the way of teaching in the schools and higher education institutions. The rules of NEP, 2020 has a positive impact on the education system and one should wait for the results after the implementation of this policy.