This year has begun with surprises — both positives and negatives — and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 could be considered the silver lining amidst all bad. Undoubtedly, education is regarded as a fundamental right as per the Constitution of India, yet it took decades to come up with such transformational policy in the history of the school and higher education. Nevertheless, equitable and inclusive education policy determines the prospects of sustainable opportunities for any nation to headway towards fulfilling sustainable development goals.
As per a study by the World Bank in 2014, India is considered the country that will have the highest population of young people in the next decade, leaving ample scope for it to reap demographic dividends. This opens tremendous prospects for a country like India to be visualised at the global platform like ancient times (like Taxila, Nalanda universities) to remain comparatively advantageous. In a way, NEP 2020 is a right step to address existing educational curricula issues like an emphasis on physical mode of teachinglearning, infrastructural limitations, availability of required manpower and e-qualified teachers, commercialisation, greater reliance on coaching practices, absence of knowledge-based and critical thinking learning mechanism, inherent concerns in syllabus structuring, lack of practical approach, employability, Hindi and English as the only preferred languages, ‘high stakes’ aspect of board exams, rote memorisation as the only success mantra, etc.
The new education policy hence aims at universal standardisation of education and accordingly explained in four specific sections: a) school education, b) higher education, c) other key areas of focus, and d) implementation. In the backdrop of the above, it is especially important to have greater insights on the different aspects of NEP 2020 with a key focus on challenges at every stage that could detriment the effectiveness.
NEP 2020 is a revolutionary policy for both learners (students) and trainers (teachers). The policy has touched upon several new aspects for teachers to teach and learners to learn where digital awareness and adoption of advanced technology will remain at the heart of the entire teaching-learning process. Additional employability opportunities for teachers is recommended for those who possess knowledge of the local languages (to tackle high dropout rates), and techfriendly for the complete overhaul of the curriculum. Further, from the teachers’ perspective, concepts like one-on-one peer tutoring (to make foundation literacy and numeracy stronger) are introduced for the very first time to make it an effective experience for both learners and tutors. Additionally, the teachers would get promotions and salary increments irrespective of the stage/ level of education, they are teaching. A 4-year integrated B.Ed. degree is made mandatory (till 2030) for school teachers under NEP 2020 with multidisciplinary 2-year B.Ed. programme, depending upon their varied interests. The regulatory mechanism is put forth as a new guideline where National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will set the basic standards to facilitate teachers’ assessments in consultation with NCERT (and SCERTs) to manage their respective career and subsequent progression. Also, a faculty appointed at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will not be transferable across institutions (unlike existing practices) so that they remain truly invested, committed, and connected with the same institution.
From students’ point of view, NEP emphasises upon the easy learning process instead of rote learning; the curricula will be designed keeping in mind ‘how to learn’; learning via activities; experiential learning; arts and sports integrated programmes to make the learning process longlasting. Unfortunately, in India, the gross enrolment ratio in higher education is 26.3% (2018) which is now aimed at 50% till the year 2035 with NEP 2020 in place. At higher level education (Masters/PhD), the availability of multidisciplinary areas under one roof is the most promising reform to have a wider reach and access. Second generation IITs (like Ropar, Hyderabad, Roorkee, etc) already have such a mechanism in operation.
Challenges in NEP 2020
It is argued substantially that the success of this policy will be decided by the effectiveness of Section IV in NEP 2020: ‘How to make it Happen’. When it comes to ground-level implementation, things behave differently. Therefore, Central and state governments need to plan a universal roadmap for the smooth implementation of NEP 2020. First and foremost being the structuring and revision of the existing syllabi at different stages (5+3+3) by a single central agency (NCERT) might be the biggest challenge. Second, availability of adequate funding to finance additional infrastructure for proposed new setups at the district level, school libraries at the village level, fresh appointments, digital know-how of the existing resources, etc, could only add to the cost and delay the implementation. Last but not least, NEP 2020 seems to rely too much on the role of public institutions and hence a complete overlook to address private sector participation in education (except for HEIs). Other than that, a nation like India (with the highest number of millennials) could not leave the fundamental right to education at the mercy of philanthropic activities.
Role of the private sector in education (at school level especially) should be carefully blended along with prime success determinants such as affordability and quality of education, instead of further giving way to commercialisation. To increase access and affordability, standardisation in the fee curriculum (at least till preparatory level) may prove to be a step in the right direction. Further, gigantic structural changes need to be placed, as NEP 2020 stresses only upon the introduction of vocational studies at school level without any lucid framework at higher-level education. Additionally, there should be a compulsory e-skill enhancement programme/ workshops/ FDPs for teachers at all levels to scale up their e-competence. Moreover, the multidisciplinary institutional structure is a right visionary step towards the futuristic educational setup, shall be with an assurance that India’s most prestigious institutions like IITs, IIMs do not deviate from their prime disciplinary focus. Ultimately, to make education available for all (as per SDGs), parity among government and non-government schools/ educational institutions for quality and competence should also be considered. Thus, increasing the fiscal budget to 6% of GDP (or SGDP) should be made as a bare minimum requirement to facilitate all above.
NEP 2020 is a right visionary step but with challenging implementation on the ground.
Megha Jain is assistant professor at University of Delhi and Saurabh Jaiswal is an officer at DSP Investment Managers Pvt Ltd.