National Education Policy by the government of India.
Summary
India's National Education Policy 2020 is an inclusive, comprehensive framework to guide the development of education in the country. It is the first new education policy in India in 34 years, succeeding the previous one from 1986, which was revised in 1992. This policy aims to transform India's education system by 2040.
Here's a detailed summary:
1. School Education
- The new 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively will replace the existing 10+2 structure. This change aims to promote optimal development of children at different ages and improve learning outcomes.
- It emphasizes Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) for ages 3-6. It acknowledges the criticality of these years for mental development and aims to ensure universal access to quality ECCE.
- The policy aims to achieve 100% youth and adult literacy.
- Vocational education will start in schools from the 6th grade, including internships to learn real-world applications of classroom knowledge.
- A new National Curriculum Framework will be introduced, with students' proficiency in languages being a focus.
- Board exams will be redesigned to test core concepts and application of knowledge. To reduce pressure, students can take the exams twice in a year.
- The policy aims for a holistic, student-centric, flexible system that is focused on the development of critical thinking and more experiential, inquiry-based, discovery-based, discussion-based, and analysis-based learning.
- No hard separation of streams and extracurricular activities from the academic curriculum, aiming for a more interdisciplinary approach.
2. Higher Education
- The policy envisions broad-based, multi-disciplinary, holistic undergraduate education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education, and multiple entry and exit points.
- By 2030, the aim is for at least 50% of learners to have exposure to vocational education.
- The undergraduate degree will be of either 3 or 4 years, with multiple exit options within this period and appropriate certification.
- The M.Phil. program will be discontinued.
- A Higher Education Council of India (HECI) will be set up to regulate higher education; the focus will be on institutions having academic and administrative autonomy.
- The policy promotes the internationalization of education in India and encourages top world-ranked universities to establish campuses in India.
- 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. Technology in Education
- The NEP 2020 recognizes the role of technology in improving the delivery of education. It seeks to integrate technology into all levels of education to improve classroom processes, support teacher professional development, enhance educational access for disadvantaged groups, and streamline educational planning, administration, and management.
- The NEP aims to leverage the potential of online and digital education to ensure equitable access to the highest quality of education for all students.
4. Teachers
- The policy emphasizes the recruitment of highly capable individuals in the teaching profession at all levels and ensuring their continuous professional development.
- Teachers will be given greater autonomy in choosing aspects of pedagogy.
- A new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, NCFTE 2021, will be formulated by the NCTE in consultation with NCERT.
5. School Regulation and Management
- A new system will be established for regulation and operation of schools, with separate systems for policy-making, regulation, operations, and academic matters.
- Schools can be operated by philanthropic and public efforts, but the regulatory criteria will be the same for all school types to ensure equitable education.
6. Financing
- The policy proposes to increase public investment in education sector to reach 6% of GDP at the earliest, which has been a long-standing demand of the education sector in the country.
As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, these were some of the key aspects of the NEP. However, for the most recent updates and developments, I recommend referring to the latest official resources.
Further reading
- Summary by Gov : https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1847066
Relevant links
My highlights
Introduction
- while the need for a skilled workforce, particularly involving mathematics, computer science, and data science, in conjunction with multidisciplinary abilities across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, will be increasingly in greater demand
- heightens the need for multidisciplinary learning.
- but more importantly learn how to learn
- Education thus, must move towards less content, and more towards learning about how to think critically and solve problems, how to be creative and multidisciplinary, and how to innovate, adapt, and absorb new material in novel and changing fields
- Pedagogy must evolve to make education more experiential, holistic, integrated, inquiry-driven, discovery-oriented, learner-centred, discussion-based, flexible, and, of course, enjoyable
- Education must build character, enable learners to be ethical, rational, compassionate, and caring, while at the same time prepare them for gainful, fulfilling employment.
- ‘higher-order’ cognitive capacities, such as critical thinking and problem solving
- The pursuit of knowledge (Jnan), wisdom (Pragyaa), and truth (Satya) was always considered in Indian thought and philosophy as the highest human goal
- The teacher must be at the centre of the fundamental reforms in the education system
- ??
School Education
- 10 + 2 >> 5+3+3+4
- Early Childhood Care and Education: The Foundation of Learning
- ECCE ideally consists of flexible, multi-faceted, multi-level, play-based, activity-based, and inquiry-based learning, comprising of alphabets, languages, numbers, counting, colours, shapes, indoor and outdoor play, puzzles and logical thinking, problem-solving, drawing, painting and other visual art, craft, drama and puppetry, music and movement. It also includes a focus on developing social capacities, sensitivity, good behaviour, courtesy, ethics, personal and public cleanliness, teamwork, and cooperation
- The highest priority of the education system will be to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy in primary school by 2025.
- PTR less than 30 to 1
- Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA)
- Furthermore, research shows that the morning hours after a nutritious breakfast can be particularly productive for the study of cognitively more demanding subjects and hence these hours may be leveraged by providing a simple but energizing breakfast in addition to midday meals.