NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY AND ITS EFFECT ON INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM
Dr. Sujatha[1]
Abstract
Education is a universal vaccine to eradicate many viruses like poverty illiteracy crimes etc, Education is a fundamental step which sculptures the human brain and allows him to explore and contribute for the betterment of society. The government has not left any stone unturned to provide quality education to the children and youths of the country. The country’s future depends on the quality of education provided to its subjects our nation which hold majority population of young people hence universal quality education is need of the hour to enrich the talents and also allow such young brains to explore and create a better world to live in. Education must not be merely a content-based program and must shift towards learning how to critically analyse and solve problems and encourage creativity and involvement in multidisciplinary aspects; it must focus on character development and also prepare students for gainful employment.
Currently there is a huge gap among the learning outcomes and such gaps have hampered the education system adversely and what is required is to bridge the gap by bring major reforms that would cater high quality and equity education system to every individual of the country from early childhood till higher education. In order to eradicate such lacunas in the educational system the Government has come up with National educational Policy which aims to many upcoming developmental imperatives of our country. The main object of the policy is to revise and revamp the existing educational structure and to create a new system which would align with the 21st century educational requirements and also uphold India’s tradition and value system. The said policy based on the principle that education must ensure overall development such as cognitive capacity as well as foundational capacity, focuses on creative and potential development of individual.
The New Education Policy aims to facilitate an inclusive, participatory and holistic approach which has taken field experiences, empirical research stakeholder feedback and lesson learnt from best practices into consideration, this policy is a progressive shift towards more scientific approach towards education this structure shall help to cater the capability of child and help in overall development. The education policy aims to provide an overarching vision and a comprehensive and effective framework to lower and higher-level educational system.
The objective of the education policy is to achieve hundred percent enrolment ratio in preschool and secondary level and has also brough a major change by shifting 10+2 structure to 5+3+3+4 which shall include children from three to eighteen years such kind of pedagogical transformation aims at including multiple pathways of learning. India is spending 4.6% approx. of its total GDP 1 towards education, in spite of such contribution there is still existence of illiteracy.
The New Education policy has been brought with an objective to achieve hundred percent literacy rate which also holds the vision to provide equitable and vibrant knowledge to every individual of the society and make India into global knowledge superpower. There are many pathbreaking provisions which NEP 2 aims to achieve in the said paper the author shall highlight the impact of NEP on Indian education system.
“EDUCATION is not learning of facts but training of mind to THINK” -Albert Einstein
INTRODUCTION
Education can be compared to the wheels of social and economic progress where in order to move forward the vehicle of Social and economic development must have progressive education. Education is a basic need for every mankind for overall development of oneself and the nation together which shall contribute towards tranquility among the global community. If the nation aims at zeal, then it must ensure that there is quality education which is provided universally. In Indian youth is one such resources which has to be utilized efficiently which would contribute for the nation’s prosperity and development.
India has given paramount importance towards education system where it has always had a liberal attitude towards education reforms where it has an approximate of 850 universities which are further divided among small institutes and around 40,000 institutes for higher education purpose . Although having humongous amount of education institution there is existence of fragmentation of education mode where forty percent (40%) approximate education institutions follow a single program in accordance to the reforms required in 21st century , whereas other twenty percent (20%) of colleges are not able to improvise their educational program and methods as there is less admission rates which is below hundred (100) students a year , and remaining educational institutes suffer due to excessive admission as there exists regional imbalance and lack of quality education .
Currently such fragmentation among the educational institute is a major drawback and also a reason for improper access to quality education. In today’s world education is commercialized and institutes view it more like a business and not a service this corrupt regulatory system has encouraged many fake players to enter into the educational sector and institutional autonomy to attract the student are catering the greed rather the need, there is lack of proper mechanisms which aims to attain quality education and improper training towards teachers are few factors which contributes towards such fragmentation.
India has adopted the Sustainable development goal 4 in the year 2015 which seeks to ensure inclusive equitable quality education and promote lifelong opportunities to all by 2030, giving a nod to such agenda requires various changes within the nation to achieve the same and the alarming need to foster universal quality education in order to achieve all the goals of 2030. In order to progress effectively a critical analysis of existing educational system is much needed and also improper division of educational program must be eliminated. Its evident that there is a rapid change in global community and the world is more dependent on technology and which has proven that mere holding a degree would not serve the purpose until there exist a capability to understand create and solve critical issue on respective fields. Thus, its required to understand that our education system must not just focus on learning but also multidisciplinary aspects and teach the children how to learn and create.
Its necessary to encourage creative thinking, experimental learning discussion and discovery-oriented programs, the education system must be a course which would help the child grow healthy both physically and mentally. There exists a huge gap between existing education system and required education system in order to bridge such gap there is a requirement to have an effective frame work and revamp any such statutes r guidelines which does not serve the purpose. India is expected to be worlds third largest economy by 2030-2032 and there is no doubt that economy will be driven by knowledge and technology, hence there is a need to upgrade the existing education policy. Considering all such aspects the Government of India have come forward with an education policy which is believed to serve the purpose of nations good and also help to achieve goals and agenda which the nation has adopted.
The New education policy 2020 introduced by the government of India aims at addressing many development imperatives which are blooming in the country, the said policy has an objective to attain universal quality education and revamp all the existing education structure including its governance fragmentation and bring it such a policy which would be a contributing factor to achieve SDG and 2030 agenda and aims to transform our nation sustainably into equitable vibrant society.
On such factor which is to be applauded is the NEP has brought in changes in their educational sector considering the tradition culture and values, when inputs are drawn from historical heritage and educating the contribution of our ancestors towards the various fields of education will be encouraging to learners and also will uphold our culture and tradition. The beneficiary under this policy will be learning about the glorified education system of India and also its importance towards education where Nalanda, Takshashila, Vikramshila, Valabhi, Somapura and Jagadala were recognized as class universities of ancient Bharat. Adapting the ancient form of teaching can boost the education as its evident that when there was an paradigm shift where after invasion of British there was English Education Act this act was introduced to produce manpower to the British who would work like a machine and thus the shift was followed for many years and post-independence the traces of British education system is still found and it acted as a veil to cover the pre-existing educational system which was multi-disciplinary and also contributed towards humanity morality etc.. there exists a ray of hope to bring change among the students and educate them to know the see the world in their own eyes and not be chained with assumptions and allegation from the NEP 2020.
NEED FOR NEW EDUCATION POLICY
In the era of globalization where all the nations are in race to be superpower, the country’s development is not measured through its assets, but the talent they produce and how that is contributing towards the global community it is known to all that we are technological driven society and there is requirement of talents who are capable to invent create discover and contribute to the global community. In order to achieve development, its well aware to all the countries that there must be a robust education system and every country around the globe have initiated their effort towards uplifting the education sector.
India is known globally for many aspects and has entered many treaties conventions etc.. and in order to be a consistent player in the global community its an alarming need for India to relook into its existing education system as India holds the highest human resources and its utmost duty lies to channelize the resources which would yield dual benefit that is both for individual and the nation, today education is matter of right which is deprived to individuals who are later being victim to poverty and illiteracy. Hence there is need to bring a change in educational system where it would be accessible to every individual of the country and change nation’s future.
The NEP and its implementation shall change the complete education system which is most need during this time where it touches most critical areas of the system which are stayed behind the screen unattended and unchanged
DIGITAL EDUCATION:
In the existing era technology has made its dominance even in the field of education where the digital form of education are blooming and with COVID-19 digital education is the only available source to every educational institute to cater there students and when such drastic changes are occurring we are well aware that students who are below poverty line and have residents at such regions where geographical factors are blockage to such education there is a need to change the educational infrastructure system where there would be no hardship to the students who are victim of no education due to such happenings, when nation was hit by the pandemic the state was busy handling the medical sector and schools were closed for a long period of time later when there was announcement that the schools were conducting online classes many students were compelled to quit studies due to the financial capacity for not having proper resources for digital education, according to NCERT survey approximate 27% of students across the country have no access to smart phones or laptops , as there is no proper mechanism to handle such situation there is a need to bring policy on such areas and also see that there is proper infrastructural facilities at school where the students who can avail the benefit for the same.
Its evident that when pandemic had its effect as it being alien and we being not prepared there was major loss and it was due to no long run strategy to handle such situations and implementation of plans when we are victimized will only led to more loss hence the must be a strategy to handle such situation and see that the objective of universal quality education upholds.
UNHEALTHY COMPETITION
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein
In today’s education system a person capability is measured through his marks obtained but not through the level of creativity he holds, every student is in the race to achieve the top position where there are reading just to get more marks and not to understand the subject this has led to unhealthy competition and also encourages memorization and leaves behind actual education which is required, the existing education system declares a person well educated who is good at memorizing things and write the same which is been taught and asked to read if such system follows then its saddened to see that creativity is choked to death at the ground level where it requires to be uplifted. The main reason for such existing system is the programmed syllabus which has been issued to every institute and are asked to be followed and this program need to be revamped as it serves no good to the system. The education system must encourage the multi-disciplinary approach and bring out talents of the students and polish it rightly so that they can shine bright.
PARTIALLY EDUCATED
The education systems one such drawback is the school dropouts who are been partially educated this sector of students are been neglected and they are not given proper attention and neither there is proper effort made to bring them back towards learning. In India there is huge number of school dropouts who quit school for various reasons. dropouts are threat to society are they remain un-flourished and unskilled so they are prone to unemployment illiteracy and poverty, although there is existing policy to curb such issues but still the ratio holds upper hand, there is and requirement to bring in policy which would effectively implement to eradicated such dropout as there are the core reason for crimes etc…
Dropouts are vulnerable and they are exploited in various ways and which hampers the development of nation and if left unattended then the country’s progress would be slow and eradication of such group can be attained through proper and quality education which must be provided at the earliest in order to remove such irregularities there is need to revamp the existing policies.
The existing system failure needs to be addressed and a new guideline must be implemented to ensure that children are enrolled and are school going without any obstacles in regards to this there were many initiatives taken such as sarva shiksha abhiyan, right to education Act but still there exists loopholes where access to school is denied
There are various other such drawbacks which are been faced in the education system there were many implementations made to overcome the problem but unfortunately there has been no success seen hence in order to eliminate such mishaps there is a need to bring change from the grass root level through governance and proper policy NEP is viewed as a vaccine to eradicated many deadly viruses existing in the education system of the country.
NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2020
The New education Policy envisions to provide education system which is rooted to the Indian culture and tradition that will contribute towards transforming India into a knowledgeable society with many talents, it ensures to cater universal educational policy system which would make India global knowledge superpower. The said policy aims at brining innovative form of teaching and learning process which would contribute towards betterment of the society.
The education policy has emphasized on developing deep sense and respect towards constitutional values their fundamental rights and duties and other important aspects of The Constitution of India which bonds the whole country as one, and create awareness among the students to know their role and their duties towards oneself his nation and world at large.
The attempt of encouraging students to know about deep rooted pride of the country is applaudable which would help students to get committed towards human and moral values and also contribute towards sustainable development and global community.
The New education Policy has implemented various stages in education system With a stage-wise division, the structure is like a fresh breeze for students being offered with a chance of an education system which is concerned with the overall development of the child starting right from the core level of his education years.
New Curricular and Pedagogical Structure: With emphasis on Early Childhood Care and Education, the 10+2 structure of school curricula is to be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively. This will bring the hitherto uncovered age group of 3-6 years under school curriculum, which has been recognized globally as the crucial stage for development of mental faculties of a child. The new system will have 12 years of schooling with three years of Anganwadi/ pre schooling. The new system will cover various stages:
Foundation stage: It’s believed that 85% of children would enter the stage of brain development prior attaining the age of six, which indicates that there is need for proper care and protection to ensure that the child develops a healthy brain. As per the new school structure the policy has initiated foundational stage program for the children from age three to five where the foundational stage includes three years of pre-primary i.e nursery kinder garden and upper kinder garden and two years of primary that is class I and II.
The reason behind early education is to eradicated the pressure and downward extension of primary curriculum to pre-primary classes where there are exposed to overload of subjective content where they are expected to advance in reading writing and other operations which causes stress.
The NEP aims to Implement uniformity among the state and private educational institutions The NCERT will be the nodal body for formulating the National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECCE) for children up to the age of eight. NEP also proposes to set up Gender Inclusion Fund and Special Education Zones to ensure that no child is left out of the school system, especially the girl child and children from socially marginalized and economically disadvantaged groups. Another meaningful proposal aimed at bringing the most vulnerable children into the formal education system is to add breakfast to the existing mid-day meal programs
Preparatory Stage: Three years Preparatory stage consists of building on the play discovery and activity-based learning. In addition to it, this stage gradually introduces formal classroom learning with textbooks. The focus is to expose different subjects to the students and prepare them to delve deeper into insights.
The aim of this Preparatory stage is to teach basic numerical and reading skills to the student along with arts and physical education. The teacher of the Preparatory stage would be generalist who could teach reading writing and arithmetic skills to students. Some specialized subject teachers for language and arts would also teach these students. One big proposal in the draft of NEP is to serve breakfast along with lunch, which is served under the Mid-Day meal program. This would make the learning hours between breakfast and lunch period more productive, especially to the students from the disadvantaged community. “Both a nutritious breakfast and a midday meal will be served to pre-primary and primary school students,” read the draft of NEP.
The draft proposes promotion of multilingualism from foundation stage because “children learn languages most quickly between 2-8 years, and multilingualism has great cognitive benefits for students.” It ‘encourages the schools to teach three languages to students from the early stage – mother tongue, Hindi and English for non-Hindi speaking states and Hindi, English and one Indian language for Hindi speaking states. It is a scientific fact that children learn quickly if they are taught something in their mother tongue. Therefore, NEP lays down great emphasis on the use of mother tongue as ‘medium of instruction’.
Middle Education Stage: Three years of Middle school education focus on more abstract concepts in each subject like sciences, mathematics, arts, social sciences, and humanities. Experiential learning is the method to be adopted in specialized subjects with subject teachers Students are exposed to the semester system and yearly two class level examinations will be conducted. This will cover school education from class 6-8 and will be for the age group of 11-14 years. The structure aims to transform the pedagogy from the existing system to a more experiential learning in the sciences, mathematics, arts, social sciences and humanities. The focus would be on critical learning objectives and not mere learning.
Secondary education Stage: Secondary Stage offers students with a plethora of choices in the subjects from the curriculum instead of the stream-wise allocation of subjects in the higher secondary education as of now. It includes a multidisciplinary study where students would be able to pick and choose any set of subjects from the available structure. A highly helpful and convenient change for students in higher classes, in this stage, the child is allowed to pick subjects as per their interests. The onus would be put on enhancing critical thinking and flexibility for students, four years of Secondary school education is designed to provide multidisciplinary subjects including Liberal Arts education. This includes classes 9 to 12 or the secondary and the higher secondary as we know them today. The changes suggested at this stage include a multidisciplinary study where students would be able to pick and choose any set of subjects from the available structure. The focus would be on greater critical thinking and flexibility, allowing the child to pick subjects as per their interests even technical and arts.
Under-graduation Education Stage: The Undergraduate degrees in every subject will be of either three- or four-year duration with multiple exit options including a certificate after passing first year, a diploma after passing second year, or a Bachelor ’s degree after passing third year. The four years undergraduate degree program is preferred with major, minors and research projects.
Post-graduation Education Stage: The Master’s degree – a one-year for four years bachelor degree students, a two-year degree for three years bachelor degree students, and an integrated five-year degree with a focus on high quality research in the final year. The Masters’ degree will consist of a strong research component to strengthen competence in the professional area and to prepare students for a research degree.
Research Stage: Research stage consists of pursuing high quality research leading to a Ph.D. in any core subject, multidisciplinary subject, or interdisciplinary subject for a minimum period of three to four years for full-time and part-time study respectively. During Ph.D. they should undergo 8-credit coursework in teaching/ education/ pedagogy related to their chosen Ph.D. subject. The earlier one-year MPhil program is discontinued.
FUNCTIONS
An autonomous body, the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), will be created to provide a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, administration. NEP 2020 emphasizes setting up of Gender Inclusion Fund, Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups.
Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as a single overarching umbrella body the for entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education. HECI to have four independent bodies
National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) for regulation,
General Education Council (GEC) for standard setting,
Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for funding, and
National Accreditation Council (NAC) for accreditation.
Higher Education Commission of India will function through faceless intervention through technology, & will have powers to penalize for not conforming to norms and standards. Public and private higher education institutions will be governed by the same set of norms for regulation, accreditation and academic standards.
Integrated Controlling & Monitoring System:
As per NEP-2020, the first 10 years from 2021 to 2030 is the implementation period and the next 10 years from 2030 to 2040 is the operational period. The implementation process is divided into seven stages:
(1) Implementation of spirit and intent of the policy
(2) Implementation of policy initiatives in a phased manner
(3) Prioritization and sequencing of policy points
(4) Comprehensive full-fledged implementation to achieve the desired objectives
(5) Collaborative planning, monitoring, and implementation by both Centre and States
(6) Timely supply of required resources by both Centre and States
(7) Careful analysis and review of multiple linkages to ensure effective dovetailing of all initiatives Effective use of technology to monitor and control each stage is essential for the expected progress of implementation.
SUGGESTIONS
Reformulate the RTE based on outcomes: There is a dire need to revisit The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE)-2009. RTE has been successful in providing universal access to elementary education, increasing retention and improving school infrastructure. But it has failed to improve learning levels of children. The Section 16 of RTE states that no child shall be expelled or held back in a class until he/she completes elementary schooling.
Improve public schools for quality and social integration: Another mandate of RTE which needs careful rethinking is the one-size-fits all approach of reserving 25% of seats (Section 12 (1) (c)) in private schools for the weaker sections of the society. This clause was conceived to expand the options for poor parents to send their kids to private schools, an alibi for the voucher system. It reflects an implicit assumption by the government that private schools are better than the public schools. Way back in 1966, the Kothari Commission had recommended Common School System (CSS) where kids from all socio-economic backgrounds study together and learn from each other’s life experiences. It is essential to bring back the trust in public education system by improving its quality rather than turning blindly to private schools.
Universalize Secondary Education:India is close to achieving universal access to elementary education. However, elementary education is too basic to provide any life skills or vocational skills for productive employment. The next logical step for government should be to universalize secondary education. The Rastriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) was started in 2009 with the main objective to make secondary education of good quality available, accessible and affordable to all by 2020. One major initiative of RMSA was to set up 6000 Model Schools (one in every block) through state and public-private partnerships, as a benchmark of excellence for providing quality education. Unfortunately, because of the steep budget cuts, this fiscal year, secondary education has received diminished attention. In a major setback this year, the center has totally delinked itself from the Model school’s program, thereby widening the gap between promise and reality.
Need For Cooperative Federalism: Since education is a concurrent subject (both the Centre and the state governments can make laws on it), the reforms proposed can only be implemented collaboratively by the Centre and the states.
CONCLUSION With a clear focus on equity, inclusivity and digital literacy, the reforms under NEP 2020 aim to transform India into a knowledge superpower. It brings the Indian education system on par with global practices in the segment while creating a tech-driven generation who are ready to plunge into the future workforce. The new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a revolutionary policy. It aims to make the education system holistic, flexible, multidisciplinary, aligned with the needs of the 21st century. The intent of policy seems to be ideal in many ways, but it is the implementation where the key to success lies.
[1] Asst. Professor, BMS College