These are the changes brought under the Education Policy that you should definitely know about!

Disha Agarwal | ICFAI Hyderabad | 3rd August 2020

Key Highlights of National Education Policy 2020:

I. School Education:

• The National Education Policy focuses on Universalization of early childhood care and education (ECCE) by providing multi-faceted play-based and discovery-based learning. The curriculum has been divided into 2 parts: 0-3 (years) & 3-8 (years) as per the research, national international practices etc.
• Foundational literacy and numeracy have been given utmost priority inclusive of reading, writing, speaking, mathematical thinking with stage wise development. It also aims at setting up National Mission for Foundational Literacy by Education Ministry.
• National Education Policy aims at bringing 2 crore people back to the main stream. Its goal is to achieve 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for pre-school till secondary level by 2035.
• Dropouts are to be reduced by way of effective infrastructure, universal participation in school by keeping a track of students throughout their respective courses. States will uplift open schooling by establishing State Institutes for Open Schooling (SIOS).
• The education system has been reconfigured and the 10+2 system has been scrapped and changed with 5 + 3 + 3 + 4 consisting of

(i)Foundational stage (3 years of preschool + Grades 1-2),

(ii) Preparatory (Grades 3-5),

(iii) Middle (Grades 6-8), and

(iv) High school (Grades 9-12 in two phases- 9 & 10 in the first phase and 11 & 12 in the second phase).

• The content of curriculum will be reduced and revamped in a way to include critical analysis, discovery-based, discussion-based modes of learning with larger focus on application and experimental activities. There will be no hard-core distinction between ‘arts’, ‘humanities’ and ‘sciences’ and wide choice of subjects including arts, craft, physical education will be offered to students.
• Mother tongue/local language as the medium of instruction will be encouraged at least till Grade 5 but more preferably till Grade 8 as it is already proven that young children grasp more quickly when taught in their respective mother tongues. The three-language formula will be followed in the same way except that 2 of the 3 languages opted for should be Indian languages.
• Centre and States will make reasonable efforts to invest in regional teachers so as to encourage multilingualism at an early stage of curriculum. In addition to Indian languages inclusive of classical languages and Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Persian etc, high quality of foreign languages will also be offered widely at secondary level.
•  With higher importance to constructive learning, subsequent changes in the textbooks are also to be made with due importance to core elements.
• To keep a track of students’ performance, exams will be conducted by the State for Grades- 3, 5, 8. The Board examination for 10^th and 12^th will continue but redesigned with holistic development concentrating on individualised interests.
• Under the Ministry of Education, The National Assessment Centre for School Education (NACSE) will be the body setting rules, regulations for assessment and evaluation of exams for all recognized schools of India.
• National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP) also focuses on providing suitable education with wide choices to the gifted children so as to discover their innate talent.
• NCFTE (National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education) will be revised and formulated by 2021. By 2030, the minimum qualification for teaching will be a 4-year B.Ed. degree. National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by 2022 as a common guiding set including various aspects such as performance appraisal, promotions, salaries etc.
• Gender Inclusion Fund will be constituted so as to provide financial support to Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs) and to provide quality education to females and transgenders in specific. Kendriya Vidyalaya’s will be built in disadvantaged areas and Special Economic Zones (SEZ) so as to provide access to education covering all the areas.

II. Higher Education:

• National Education Policy, 2020 aims at increasing the Gross Enrolment Ration (GER) in Higher Education Institutes (HEI) by 50% by 2030.
• National Education Policy, 2020 envisages to re-structure the higher education by overcoming the current challenges such as severe fragmentation of higher education, rigid separation, poor learning outcomes etc.
• The current policy focuses to move towards multi-disciplinary higher education system with flexible entry and exit points. It also aims at establishing National Research Foundation to fund research and development in colleges and universities. It aims at making all higher education institutions multi-disciplinary by 2040.
• The main aim of National Education Policy with respect to Higher Education is to put an end to the fragmentation of higher education by modifying the higher education system so as to provide high-quality education along with variety of fields or programmes to offer.
• One of the most interesting change bought by NEP, 2020 is that it provides students with multiple exit options during their Under Graduate Degree. For the same, Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) will be established will store the respective credits earned.
• Multi-disciplinary Education & Research Universities (MERU’S) will be established with an aim to set high standards for holistic education across India.
• National Scholarship Portal will be expanded so as to provide the students with utmost financial support. It also enables Private higher education institutions to provide scholarship from 100-25% to at the minimum half of their students.
• Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as a single autonomous body governing all the aspects of higher education except medical and legal fields.
• With respect to international focus, Universities of India will be encouraged to establish their campus in the foreign countries & in the same way selected foreign universities will be allowed to establish their campuses in India.
• In order to regain the integrity of Teaching profession, all undermined, stand-alone TEI (Teacher Education Institutes)’s shall be restructured into multi-disciplinary institutes providing quality education. It also aims at providing vocational exposure to students by 2025.

III. Other Key Areas:

• NEP, 2020 aims to promote Indian arts, culture, language extensively, HEI’s will have respective departments for the same for providing high exposure to students in these fields. Departments in creative writing, competitive literature will be established across India.
• NEP provides for setting up of Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI), National Institute (or Institutes) for Pali, Persian and Prakrit, so as to strengthen the usage of all languages in HEIs. strengthening of Sanskrit and all language departments in HEIs.
• National Education Technology Forum (NETF) will be established to provide free exchange of data, communication. It also aims to provide a single platform to enhance learning through technology.
• An apex advisory body Rashtra Shiksha Yojana (RSA) will be set up in order to evaluate the vision time and again and take essential steps to achieve it. It is responsible for providing proper consultation with respect to any educational issue.
• The cabinet also decided to designate the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) as the Ministry of Education (MoE).
• In order to become a global giant in providing world class education Centre & State seeks to increase the public investment & reach 6% GDP in the education sector at the earliest.
• Effective policy requires effective implementation of the same. In order to carry out effective implementation various bodies such as RSA, MoE, NCERT, SCERT, Central & State Education Departments will have to work in sync and ensure effective implementation of the policy in its true spirit.