The National Education Policy - 2020

• The Government has formulated the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in our country announced by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) on 27/07/20.
• The New Education Policy (2020) is a historic effort and first omnibus policy after thirty-four years, under Modi regime. The purpose of NEP is a framework to guide the development of education in the country.
• NEP aims to ensure equity and inclusion in and through education by addressing all forms of exclusion and marginalization, disparity, vulnerability and inequality in education access, participation, retention and completion and in learning outcomes.
• As per the new policy, the education system is structured with 5+3+3+4 whereas the present policy is 10+2.

Current Education System:

• At present, we are following the education system which was formed in the year 1986 but the Education System in India has been around since 1921.
• The National Policy on Education (NPE) in 1986 pressed for free and compulsory education for all children below 14 years of age.
• The main objective of the National Policy of Education (NPE) of 1986 and Programme of Action, 1992 was to establish a national system of education, implies that all students irrespective of caste; creed, sex and religion have access to education of a comparable quality.
• In 2019, the Indian government amended Section 16 of the Right to Education (RTE) Act to ensure that students from Class I to VIII are guaranteed promotion irrespective of their academic performance to avoid detention in the same class.
• The Indian Education System has four levels:
  • Lower Primary (Classes I to V, ages 6 to 10)
  • Upper Primary (Classes VI and VII, ages 11 and 12)
  • High School (Classes VIII to X, ages 13 to 15)
  • Higher Secondary (Classes XI and XII, ages 17 and 18).
• The main languages taught are Hindi, English and the regional languages (mother tongue).

Benefits of the National Education Policy:

• It aims to ensure 100% literacy nationwide by 2030.
• Education will begin for children from the age of three years when brain growth is exponential and understanding skills are powerful
• The age group between 9-12 years is considered as Higher Secondary group so the student will get continuity in the learning process.
• The common entrance examination in Classes II, V, VIII, X and XII will help the students to prepare well for Classes X and XII and gain confidence to face public examinations.
• A 4-year B.Ed. course is sure to produce competent and high-quality faculty which is guaranteed to improve the quality of the Education System in India.
• The removal of the MPhil course will highlight PhD education so that the candidates can contribute more time in doing high-quality study and research.
• Students can pursue one-year postgraduate course abroad (instead of the current two-year duration) so that they can be recruited to good companies at the earliest.
• A centralised digital education agency will be formed to monitor education.
• Inter-disciplinary subjects like Fashion with Mathematics or Baking with Biology will be encouraged.
• Skill-based learning will help to mould highly talented candidates.
• Students can pursue their education in High School and Degree at any time in case they drop out for urgent reasons.
• Colleges and institutions are provided an opportunity to improve their quality, results, facilities, faculty, etc. The Government has proposed to cancel the affiliation of the colleges or schools which are not maintaining the quality as per the standards. This will surely help to improve the quality of the Education System in India.
• If a student discontinuous their education in second year of Degree, they will at least get a Diploma certificate to prove that they have completed two years of graduate education.

Drawbacks of the National Education Policy:

• The New Education System divided into 5+3+3+4 may affect the aided schools and the private schools because they have to improve their infrastructural facilities. Many of the schools don't have an option to improve their infrastructure especially the schools located in town.
• Since Classes IX, X, XI and XII will be merged, the Teacher eligibility will be a big challenge.
• In this new system students will not be promoted to the next class until they qualify in the examination – this may cause depression and suicide rate may increase due to the inferiority complex among the students with learning difficulties. The challenge is to make them understand that failure also is a part of our life.
• It is going to be a single syllabus for the entire country, so the text book publishers are going to be a single vendor which leads to exploitation in terms of the textbook price. All we know is that a monopoly is not a good sign for anything in a country like India.
• Compulsory mother tongue implementation in higher classes will create a problem to the students if they are planning for an abroad career. English is the most commonly spoken language in the world, so it is better to continue in English as the mode of teaching and education. In another way it will affect the English medium schools also. But the central government is taking an opinion regarding this from the state government, so far there is no structured framework on this matter.
• Independent research at PhD level may be a challenge for research scholars.
• The most important objection in this New System is, more colleges will get autonomous power. We know that autonomous colleges can conduct and inspect examinations under their own supervision. This may lead to a wrong impact on the results and quality, because colleges may be a little liberal on marks to increase their winning results. This kind of activity will really affect the good schools and the good schools will slowly move out from the frame. The meritorious students who are looking for admission may be forced to take private management quota seats in future.