“Education Is The Manifestation Of The Perfection Already Present In Man”– Swami Vivekananda. July 29, 2021 marks one year of the National Education Policy 2020. Here is a look at how it will transform the education system.
The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) was approved by the Union Cabinet of India on 29 July 2020, which outlines the vision of India’s new education system. The new policy replaces the previous National Policy on Education, 1986. The policy is a comprehensive framework for elementary education to higher education as well as vocational training in both rural and urban India. The policy aims to transform India’s education system by 2025. The national educational policy should be implemented in all schools all over India by 2022.
Story Behind The Formation Of NEP-2020
The survey was aimed at understanding how effectively the school system is working in the country based on student learning. It was conducted across the country on November 13, 2017 for Classes III, V and VIII in government and government-aided schools. It was by far the largest assessment survey conducted in the country and is also one of the largest conducted in the world. The findings stated that students across 12 states scored significantly below the national average in scientific ability. National Achievement Survey (NAS) identified learning as big challenge facing Indian education and this is how National Education Policy 2020 was formed.
Key Takeaways From NEP 2020
In a significant shift from the 1986 policy, which pushed for a 10+2 structure of school education, the new NEP pitches for a “5+3+3+4” design corresponding to the age groups
- 3-8 years (foundational stage),
- 8-11 (preparatory),
- 11-14 (middle), and
- 14-18 (secondary).
Aims of NEP 2020:
•Instead of exams being held every academic year, school students will only attend three exams, in classes 2, 5 and 8.
•Board exams will be continued to be held for classes 10 and 12 but will be re-designed. Standards for this will be established by an assessment body, PARAKH(Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development).
•This policy aims at reducing the curriculum load of students and allowing them to be more “inter-disciplinary” and “multi-lingual”.
• For example, “If a student wants to pursue fashion studies with physics, or if one wants to learn bakery with chemistry, they’ll be allowed to do so.” Report cards will be “holistic”, offering information about the student’s skills.
How To Successfully Implement The NEP 2020:
To implement NEP successfully at all levels the government will need to,
1)create stakeholder incentives so that the implementation is smooth and uniform.
2)formulate instruments in the form of legal, policy, regulatory and institutional mechanisms.
3)build reliable information repositories and government agencies.
Schools will actually need to redefine the teaching and learning process for a proper implementation of NEP 2020 to actually witness a trajectory of transformation for a phenomenal outcome.
My Perspective On The National Education Policy 2020:
There needs to be a significant shift in the structure of education where the outcome of learning should not be based on the completion of course but on the understanding of the topic. The assessment as I said earlier needs a complete revamp. The assessment should not define a child in terms of marks but should be an outcome of a qualitative analysis of the child. As every child is different and the same question can be understood in numerous ways by the different children. Teachers should be encouraged to be bilingual as study shows that children pick up different languages quickly in the early ages. Till Class V education can be imparted in mother tongue if feasible. There should be no hard discrimination between subjects and disciplines. Children must be encouraged to take multidisciplinary projects for better learning outcomes.
I believe the successful implementation of National Education Policy 2020 will surely transform India’s education system and it will be a boon to the coming generation.
