Topical Analysis: New Education Policy 2020

• NEP 2020 emphasizes on ensuring universal access to school education at all levels- pre-school to secondary.
• To increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in 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.
• The Centre and the States will work together to increase the public investment in Education sector to reach 6% of GDP at the earliest.

1. 5+3+3+4 Model

• Playschool stage: Students in the age group of 3-8 years will be part of the foundational stage. This stage will be split into two: Three years of playschool/anganwadi and two years in primary school (grades 1 and 2). This policy brings into the fold the already existing playschools into the formal education.
• Preparatory Schooling Stage: For children between 8-11 years of age in grades 3 to 5. There will be a greater emphasis on experiential learning across the sciences, mathematics, arts, social sciences, and humanities.
• Middle school: For students between 11-14 years in grades 6 to 8. The thrust for this level will be to have a subject-oriented pedagogical learning style.
• Secondary level: The final stage is for students between 14-18 years. This stage is again split into two sub-stages: covering grades 9 and 10 in one cohort and grades 11 and 12 in another. This stage will promote critical thinking, attention to life aspirations, and also allow flexibility of subjects.  According to the proposal, students will also have the option of exiting during grade 10 and re-entering at a later stage in grade 11.

2. Ensuring Universal Access to Education

• Infrastructure support, innovative education centres 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, open learning for classes 3,5 and 8 through NIOS and State Open Schools, secondary education programs equivalent to Grades 10 and 12, vocational courses, adult literacy and life-enrichment programs are some of the proposed ways for achieving this.

3. Early Childhood Care and Education

• NCERT will develop a National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECCE) for children up to the age of 8 which will be implemented in Anganwadis.

4. Attaining Foundational Literacy and Numeracy

• NEP 2020 calls for setting up of a National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy by MHRD. States will prepare an implementation plan for attaining universal foundational literacy and numeracy in all primary schools for all learners by grade 3 by 2025.

5. Multilingualism

• The policy has emphasized mother tongue/local language/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, including in the three-language formula. Several foreign languages will also be offered at the secondary level.

6.Inclusive Education

• Special emphasis will be given on Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups(SEDGs) which include gender, socio-cultural, and geographical identities and disabilities.  This includes setting up of   Gender Inclusion Fund and also Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups.
• Every state/district will be encouraged to establish “Bal Bhavans” as a special daytime boarding school, to participate in art-related, career-related, and play-related activities. Free school infrastructure can be used as Samajik Chetna Kendras

7. Robust Teacher Recruitment and Career Path

• Teachers will be recruited through robust, transparent processes. Promotions will be merit-based, with a mechanism for multi-source periodic performance appraisals and available progression paths to become educational administrators or teacher educators. A common National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by the National Council for Teacher Education by 2022, in consultation with NCERT, SCERTs, teachers and expert organizations from across levels and regions.

1. Common entrance exam for admissions: 

• From school to colleges, it is advised that there should be a single gateway. The National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct a common entrance examination (CEE) for admissions to universities across the country. 
• A common aptitude test, as well as specialized common subject exams in the sciences, humanities, languages, arts, and vocational subjects, will be held at least twice every year. It will allow “most universities to use these common entrance exams – rather than having hundreds of universities each devising their own entrance exams, thereby drastically reducing the burden on students, universities and colleges. 
• It will not be mandatory and will be left to individual universities and colleges to use NTA assessments for their admissions.

2. 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.
• The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.

3. Exit point: 

• “Graduate-level, master’s and doctoral education in large multidisciplinary universities, while providing rigorous research-based specialisation,”. 
• The undergraduate degree will be of either three or four-year duration, with multiple exit options. 
• Students will get a certificate after completing one year in a discipline or field including vocational and professional areas, or a diploma after two years of study, or a Bachelor’s degree after a three-year programme. 
• The four-year programme may also lead to a degree ‘with Research‟ if the student completes a rigorous research project in their major area(s) of study.

4. Foreign colleges: 

• High performing Indian universities will be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries, and similarly, selected universities, those from among the top 100 universities in the world will be facilitated to operate in India. 
• A legislative framework facilitating such entry will be put in place, and such universities will be given special dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms on par with other autonomous institutions of India.
• India will be promoted as a global study destination providing premium education at affordable costs thereby helping to restore its role as a Vishwa Guru. 
• An International Students Office at each HEI hosting foreign students will be set up to coordinate all matters relating to welcoming and supporting students arriving from abroad, as per the NEP.

5. Credit bank: 

• An Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) shall be established which would digitally store the academic credits earned from various recognised HEIs so that the degrees from an HEI can be awarded taking into account credits earned. 

6.Educational technology: 

• 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 and so on, both for school and higher education. 

7. 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.
• Public and private higher education institutions will be governed by the same set of norms for regulation, accreditation and academic standards.
• Govt will phase out the affiliation of colleges in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism is to be established for granting graded autonomy to colleges.

8. 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.

9. 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. 

Criticism

• The document states universities from among the top 100 in the world will be able to set up campuses in India. While it doesn’t elaborate the parameters to define the top 100, the incumbent government may use the ‘QS World University Rankings’. However, none of this can start unless the HRD Ministry brings in a new law that includes details of how foreign universities will operate in India.
• The emphasis in the document on critical thinking and free inquiry is entirely well placed. But it is difficult to read those words in a context, where as we speak, universities are being intimidated into political and cultural conformity. A free education system cannot flourish without a free society; reason cannot be sovereign in the face of identity politics. So the work of ensuring that freedom and critical thinking are not mere words in a power point, constrained by realities of power, will be doubly harder.
• There is yet another promise of a new regulator, a new research foundation. A lot will depend upon norms that get embedded in these institutions.
• But it is unclear if the document is recommending that the diploma or early exit options all be made available within a single institution, or different institutions offer different kinds of degrees. If it is a mandated option within single institutions, this will be a disaster, since structuring a curriculum for a classroom that has both one-year diploma students and four-year degree students takes away from the identity of the institution. There is also a risk that without adequate financial support, the exercising of exit options will be determined by the financial circumstances of the student.

The National Education Policy 2020 states that ‘The aim of education will not only be cognitive development, but also building character and creating holistic and well-rounded individuals equipped with the key 21st century skills’.

NEP has also set a goal that by 2025, at least 50% of learners through the school and higher education system, shall have exposure to vocational education, making them learn at least one vocation and expose them to several more by integrating vocational education into all schools and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in a phased manner over the next decade. 

Importantly, NEP 2020 also encourages different models of Vocational Education in schools so that locally relevant skill education can be offered in appropriate manner.

Different models of Vocational Education

• NEP proposed lifecycle-based approach for the student from Upper Primary to Grade 12, to change the narrative of Vocational Education as “Applied Learning” and provides them with much needed “life skills”, thus making them future ready for higher education, employment, or livelihood. Hence any intervention of providing Vocational Education needs to keep the child at the Core. Hence, there is an effort to provide age appropriate and customised Vocational education at each level of the school (Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary).

• The pre-vocational education programme to be introduced from Grades 6 to 8 will mainly focus on activity-based teaching-learning. It will not only reduce the boundaries between the bookish knowledge and practical knowledge, but will also expose children to the skill requirements in the work areas, thus helping them to decide the future career path. 

• At Secondary and Sr. Secondary level, NSQF compliant vocational courses are offered to the students alongwith other academic subjects.

The State Governments have been advised that Vocational courses are to be treated at par with other academic subjects and accorded a similar status in the scheme of subjects. Employability Skills module consisting of Communication Skills, Self-Management Skills, Information and Communication Technology Skills, Entrepreneurship Skills, and Green Skills has been made a mandatory part of the Vocational Courses.

• NEP aims to address integration of vocational education into all schools and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This provides mobility between general and Vocational Education. A unified credit accumulation and transfer framework is being devised for integration of academics and Vocational Education.

NEP 2020 is sweeping in its vision and seeks to address the entire gamut of education from preschool to doctoral studies, and from professional degrees to vocational training. It acknowledges the 21st century need for mobility, flexibility, alternate pathways to learning, and self-actualization.