Dr. Ritu Kalgotra
The Union Cabinet in July 2020 approved the New Education Policy (NEP) which replaces the thirty-four year old National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986. It is built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability, and is aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. NEP 2020 aims to transform India into a vibrant knowledge society and knowledge superpower. As the objective of any education system is to benefit children so that no child loses any opportunity to learn and excel because of circumstances of birth or background, NEP 2020 has a target of 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GEER), in school education by 2030. NEP 2020 aims to transform the education sector in the country as it focuses on making education accessible, equitable, and inclusive but this requires effective implementation at all levels.
Challenges in implementation
This policy envisages that the extant 10+2 structure in school education will be modified with a new pedagogical and curricular restructuring of 5+3+3+4 covering ages 3-18. The new educational schooling umbrella will consist of 12 years of schooling life along with 3 years of pre-schooling or ‘Anganwadi’. As per the new school education system of 5+3+3+4, children will spend 5 years in the Foundational stage including 3 years of pre-schooling and classes 1&2 (Ages 3 -8 years), 3 years in the Preparatory stage (Class 3 to 5, Ages 8-11), 3 years in the Middle stage (Class 6 to 8, Ages 11-14), and 4 years in the Secondary stage (Class 9 to 12, Ages 14-18). To implement the changes at each level, a thorough restructuring of the curriculum, pedagogy and content needs to be done as per the NCF (National Curriculum Framework) and content rubrics need to be revisited to modify the textbooks. The schools need to map the curriculum across grades and narrowing it to the respective core knowledge only. The focus should be on practical application-based learning and teachers need to create space to add activities related to experiential learning, creative and critical thinking skills, etc. All schools will have to rework to bring about a transformation in the teaching strategies so that these foundational skills could be developed, strengthened and achieved by Grade 3. Reading, writing, and learning basic mathematical concepts need to be more focused at an early age. Schools will have to move away from rote learning; memorizing to actual conceptual understanding. Schools also need to integrate subjects, streams and technology along with digital literacy, scientific temper and computational thinking to create a holistic learning experience for students.
* National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT) a regulatory body will be created to use technology for better learning outcomes and aims to use artificial intelligence to make learning more personalized and customized as per the learner’s requirement. It even proposes to create national alliance with EdTech companies for a better learning experience. But a big challenge here is establishing a robust digital infrastructure that caters to the remote areas. This policy requires an integration of technology in education with a component of scientific temper, digital literacy and computational thinking for a holistic learning experience for the students.
* The proposal to set up a national assessment centre, the PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) is to keep a regular check on the education system. Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) project will include CERC (Contingency Emergency Response Component) to help the Government tackle the learning losses due to School closures or any such emergency that arise in the state. The marking system shall be different; there will be a need to change the questions with related answers, which should be based on the child’s aptitude. The schools need to prepare progress card designed to reflect the progress and uniqueness of each learner in the cognitive, affective and psycho-motor domains and include self-assessment, peer assessment and teacher assessment.
* The NEP 2020 talks about creating higher performance standards for teachers clearly stating the role of the teacher at different levels of expertise/stage and competencies required for that stage. Vocational education and coding will start in schools from the 6th grade and will include internships. Teachers will also have to be digitally trained to blend into the digital learning processes. One bagless day will have to be planned for the hands-on learning of the vocational subjects. But the schools need to provide availability of different vocational subjects, infrastructural changes and teacher availability.
* Children with disabilities will be enabled to fully participate in the regular schooling process from the foundational stage to higher education, with the support of educators with cross-disability training, resource centres, accommodations, assistive devices, appropriate technology-based tools and other support mechanisms tailored to suit their needs. Therefore, schools need to have trained special educators with subject-specific knowledge and skills for the understanding of special needs of children with disabilities.
* New Education Policy 2020 will take learning outside the four walls of a classroom and aims to make Indian learners truly global citizens. It is designed to ease the burden of classroom teaching and examination on students, but its success, however, lies in the uniform and transparent implementation at all levels. It also requires adequate 100% cooperation and collaboration from all the stakeholders for uniform implementation of NEP 2020.
(The author is teaching in Department of School Education, UT J&K)
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