National Education Policy 2020 – where do we stand?

It is almost one year that government of India has taken a revolutionary step in the field of Education system by announcing National Education Policy. Lot of discussions, webinars, newspapers and social media flooded with information by various intellectuals. Many parents, teachers and students are optimistic and some are still in doubt about implementation part of it. Few are looking at it politically and setting narratives based on the party, ideology they are following.

Swami Vivekananda rightly said, “Education is not the amount of information that we put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all your life but we must have life building, Man making, character building assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you are more educated than a man who has got by heart a whole library.”

This new national education policy is exactly replica of what Swami Vivekananda said. This policy aims at creating individual as a complete human being with moral values, character, knowledge, skills, creativity, innovatively, a leader with sportsman spirit and teamwork.
The whole policy shall be implemented gradually in this decade starting from 2021-22. Therefore, we need to be enduring and support government ingenuities to be executed in every school and college. The role of every parent, student, teacher and other stakeholders is vital, without their backing it will not be implemented effectively and qualitatively.

Why I am confident that it will be implemented with effectiveness? Read below…
NEP Is headed by a great leader, scientist and former ISRO chief K. Kasturirangan who is known for finishing magnificently whatever mission he accepts with sheer commitment and 100% effort till the goal is accomplished.

Let’s see what actions are being initiated nationwide towards implementation that kick starts in June 2021…
• Ministry of Education had organised ‘Shikshak Parv’ from 8th September to 25th September, 2020 to deliberate on various themes and implementation of NEP 2020 aimed at eliciting suggestions.
• Ministry had also organised a Conference of Governors on “Role of National Education Policy in Transforming Higher Education”. In the conference, Governors and Lt. Governors of State and Union Territories, Education Minister of State and UTs, Vice Chancellors of State Universities and other dignitaries participated. Majority of states have taken steps toward implementation of NEP 2020. Further, Ministry and other implementing agencies under its purview have started taking initiatives towards implementation of NEP 2020.
• The government sets up subject – wise committees with members from relevant ministries at both the central and state levels to develop implementation plans for each aspect of the NEP. The plans will list out actions to be taken by multiple bodies, including the HRD Ministry, state Education Departments, school Boards, NCERT, Central Advisory Board of Education and National Testing Agency, among others. Planning will be followed by a yearly joint review of progress against targets set.
• The implementation process of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, is set to hit top-gear with a live dashboard being set up by the Ministry of Education to monitor its progress, beginning June 2021 onwards.
• The Human Resource Development Ministry was renamed as the Ministry of Education.
• The Ministry has identified 181 tasks, which will have to be completed under NEP 2020.
• The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved a $500 million Outcomes for Accelerated Learning Program (GOAL) to improve education outcomes for children across the state of Gujarat to Implement the key tenets of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 with a focused attention on foundational learning and ensuring that the school environment is conducive to educational reforms through child-friendly facilities.
• CBSE has announced to implement semester pattern exam for 10th and 12th from current year.
• Budget allocated by central government for research and development for final year graduate students; every year budget would be increased to build graduates with research and innovative ability.

Let’s see some of the key plugs of NEP which is going to change the future of our generations to make us global knowledge and skill powerhouse.
• Professional Education will be an integral part of the higher education system. Stand-alone technical universities, health science universities, legal and agricultural universities, or institutions in these or other fields, will aim to become multi-disciplinary institutions.
• Ensuring Universal Access at All Levels of schooling from pre-primary school to Grade 12
• Ensuring quality early childhood care and education for all children between 3-6 years
• Introducing New Curricular and Pedagogical Structure (5+3+3+4), number of years to complete 12th remains same.
• Emphasis on promoting multilingualism and Indian languages; The medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother tongue/local language/regional language
• Setting up of a new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development)
• Providing Exposure of vocational education in school and higher education system
• Robust and transparent processes for recruitment of teachers and merit based performance
• Introducing Holistic Multidisciplinary Education with multiple entry/exit options
• Setting up of Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities(MERUs)
• Setting up of National Research Foundation(NRF)
• Framing ‘Light but Tight’ regulation
• Introducing multiple mechanisms with checks and balances to combat and stop the commercialization of higher education.
• Establishing a National Mission for Mentoring.
• Establishment of Academic Bank of Credit
• Ensuring availability of all resources through school complexes and clusters
• Introducing Common Entrance Exam for Admission to HEIs to be offered by NTA
• Ensuring no hard separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams;
• Establishing National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy.

Everybody needs to keep in mind the interest of millions of students and support this policy in execution of it without any doubt in mind and need not be pessimistic about the past policy decisions and their bad implementation. The current situation is different; every action is commenced professionally with commitment and belongingness.
Let’s channelize our energy for the betterment of our young generation and generations to come.