New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 for India is aspirational, ambitious and a bold move

I remember one of the poll promises of BJP was to revamp the education sector and a high level committee was set up under the leadership for Mr. K. Kasturirangan , eminent scientist and educationist in 2018 for a thorough look at the current system and suggest a new education policy for the country. The new policy should take into account  aspiration of country after 1992 liberalization, subsequent transformational changes and  emerging need of the country for both knowledge and economy super power. The policy should also be in line with the ambition of India in 21st century , synchronize with educational pattern in developed countries , integrating the generational changes after the last policy change 34 years ago, focus on  all round development of childhood education , emphasis on research, higher education , attractive destination for foreign students and supporting many regional languages from extinct.

In line with above the NEP 2020 is a bold policy initiative and fitting well with the ambition of country in 21st century to regain the ground as attractive educational destination which India used to be in ancient time.

The policy tries to seek balance between holistic development of childhood education, promoting regional languages till class 5 and replicating finer points of  successful educational model of developed countries. 

The biggest strength in my opinion of the NEP is much needed flexibility in education sector to students,teachers and institutions which is the hall mark of new modern educational framework of developed countries which promotes seamless entry and exit after secondary education. This flexibility is not only limited to completion of courses but also selection of subjects. The compartmentalization  of arts , science and commerce  has gone is  a very welcome change in the policy. Now Mathematics and Music or philosophy and Mathematics can be an option.

This is much needed course correction of current educational patters with generational ambition and requirements. The time was ripe since normally a generational age is 30 years and this policy has been revised after 34 years. The policy initiated by Rajiv Gandhi in 1986 was also relevant as per the prevailing situation that time and provided much desired results but it certainly needed a  radical big bang change. There is no place for rigidity and lack of inertia in the new education policy.

To sum it up point wise,

1. Flexibility in course selection, completing the course and also institutions will result in seamless entry and exit.

2. Formally including 3-6 years Children  in the system. Aanganwadis across the country will transform in to pre-school.

 3. Equating with education system abroad for  making India as an attractive destination for foreign students and also provide Indian students easy entry and exit in higher studies with proposed PG of one / two years.

4. The easy entry and exit will motivate students to seek job after completing certain part  and then come back to complete will  further boost the system and its active linkage with job. It will increase more meaningful participation between industry and student and in long term influence the job market.

5. It will open pathways for both Indian universities to set up campuses abroad and vice versa. A level playing field will provides bigger choices for students.

6. Multiple entry and exit to complete UG in 3/4 years , certificate in one year and diploma in 2 years will not only help students but also parents. Like in west many students after Diploma or UG will go back to job and then after sometime return to compete the higher education with their own savings. The meaningfulness of higher education will increase. And for this the NEP suggests an Academy credit bank , which is a very long term change to allow enhances mobility with office and class and vice versa.

7. The merger of UGC and AICTE is a very welcome step.

8. Regulatory body and monitoring system will help in improving the level of education across the country

9. All India entrance examination for entry in to UG courses was much needed for a long time.

However in past also there were excellent policies in other sectors as well  but due to its poor implementation the desired result were never achieved. This policy is silent on certain areas which nees to be looked into,

1. Year by year degradation of government or government aided schools but yet this policy is very much dependent on government schools. The learning from slow degradation of these institutions has not been taken in to account.These institution have started loosing quality since 80s.  

2. Attracting large FDIs and in-country fund in to education sector is absent.

3. The three language till class 5 is not new but it was the case till 1986. Not much thought has been given in reintroducing three language till class five.

4. Too many verticals have been proposed in the policy including regulator.

5. Education is a state subject so adoption across the country would be a challenge.

6. Including of regional languages is a welcome step but it will be more useful if the higher studies is also slowly being taught in important regional language or mother tongue. 

7.  English has become bridge language in India and also associated with better job prospect so some dilution is there in NEP. 

8. Internal capacity needs to be boosted for study of engineering , medicine and science in national language like China and Russia .

9. Increase of resources to education sector is not good enough to transform our government schools, this should be around 10 % of GDP.

Overall the policy has a grand vision for the country with bit of nationalistic fervor which is good but like good policy  remain a document if not supported by result oriented road map with defined timeline and national implementation plan. Often due to poor delivery we fail in implementing good policy. So this time let us ensure that  delivery issue should not stops us and with national spirit in a time bound plan  this policy should be implemented.