New Education Policy 2020: A revolution in the Indian Education System

NEP 2020:

          There has been plenty of criticism on Indian Education system in comparison to the Education system of European countries. The government has addressed almost all the major points of criticism in its new policy.

1) One of the first and major points of criticism is that our educational system tries to fit the students into three categories after class 10: a) Science, b) Commerce, and c) Humanities. This has been very problematic – If anyone chooses one stream, then he/she cannot study the subjects of the other streams. But more often than not, the students are interested in a variety of subjects. For example – When I passed 10^th, I choose the science stream but my interest also lay in Political science and Economics. But I was helpless, having opted for the science stream, I could not study subjects like Political Science and Economics. But, the new Education Policy 2020 has changed this conservative system of education. Now, the students will have more flexibility to choose their subjects. Upon the implementation of this policy, a student can study Political Science with Physics and Chemistry with History. A student can study Science, commerce as well as Arts subjects.

2) Another major change by the government is that they have replaced the existing 10+2 academic structures with the 5+3+3+4 system now. Now, it has become more similar to the education system of the western developed countries. In the 10+2 system, education used to begin at the age of 06. In this new system, education would now start at the age of 03. Preschool would be from the age of 3-6 and then class 1 & 2 for the next two years. Then, it would be the “Preparatory stage” for the next 03 years in which focus would be upon playing, discovery and activity based classroom learning. Class 6 to 8 would be the middle stage in which experimental learning would be focused upon sciences, mathematics, arts, social science and humanities. Next would be the secondary stage of class 9-12 in which multi disciplinary studies would be focused upon.

3)   The vocational training education is given much importance in European countries and they are given equal respect to other skilled jobs. The jobs like welding, electrician, carpentry, and plumbing are looked at with disdain in India, which is a mindset that needs to change. The Indian government has implemented some structural changes to change this mindset, which is praiseworthy. For example – From class 06, students would have to do internships in vocational training jobs. The students would be imparted experience in such jobs. There would be a bag less period of 10 days – where the students would take no bags to school but experience jobs like carpentry, welding, and gardening. Vocational training in schools would be focused upon even later. This is a very critical thing without which, in my opinion, we cannot become a developed country until and unless these changes are implemented. The government has fortunately taken a step in the right direction towards advancement of education system of our country.

4) In the new format, coding would be taught to children from class 06 and the importance accorded to board exams in class 10 and 12 would be reduced.

5) Another interesting and positive policy change is that the report cards handed to students at the year end, that is, progress report will undergo a big change. Until now, the teachers assess how the student has performed in the entire year according to their perspective. Now, assessment will be done by not only the teachers, but the students will also self evaluate them and say how have they performed in the entire year, according to their perspective. Not only will there be self evaluation, the rest of the students of the class will also evaluate and say how a particular student has performed according to the perspective of the rest of the classmates. This is quite a useful step because critical thinking is a very important aspect – to evaluate oneself by oneself, to think about what one is doing and critically analyze one’s own decisions. As we are told how we are performing by our teachers and parents when we are in school, but when the school and college life gets over, there is no one to tell how our performance is going. We have to do a self evaluation of how we are performing in life and what we want to do ahead in life. So, this thinking should be imparted at an early stage to the students to evaluate one and to see what others think about you and what your evaluation is, from their perspective.

6) The government has decided that at least 6% of the GDP will now be spent on education. As of now, it is around 3% which is insufficient. So, the decision is really commendable and now it depends on implementation as well that how soon the government is able to achieve it.

7) There has been a rote learning methodology in the Indian education system for a longer period of time. Most of the exams are designed in a way that we need to memorize things, and all that we learnt, evaporates in a few months because we gave exams by rote learning. So, the government has also said that it would try and change this system as well. The exams would be designed a way that would not require much memorization or rote learning. But how exactly this will be achieved is not clearly mentioned. So, it remains to be seen in future. It is hopeful that positive changes will be implemented here as well in the future.

AFTER CLASS 12 CHANGES:

1)             There is an introduction of multiple entry and exit programme. For example – Suppose you start B.tech degree and one year later, you realize that you do not want to continue with it because you don’t like it. So, you can drop midway. All the subjects that you have studied for one year, you can take their credits and get it transferred to another degree. This is extremely useful and already exists in most of the developed countries. This option now includes another feature – say the degree is of four years, if you drop out after one year, then you will get a certificate. If you drop out after the second year, then you will get a diploma. After three years, you will get a bachelor’s degree and after four years – a bachelor’s research degree. If you have already done a four year degree in bachelors, MA & M.Sc degrees would only be of one year and two years if you have a bachelor’s degree of three years. This is again consistent with the international standard.

        Top 100 foreign institutions have been given permission to set up their campuses within India. Focusing on vocational education, the government has said that in the next ten years, it will be integrated in all the schools and higher educational institutions in a phased manner. It is being aimed that by 2025, 50% of the learners in schools and higher educational institutions will have exposure to vocational education. A common national professional standard will be set for all the teachers by 2022 and a four year integrated BA degree would be the minimum qualification required to become a teacher by 2030.

Controversial aspects:

   1)                 This policy reads that,”Wherever possible the medium of instruction till 5^th grade and preferably till class 8 and beyond will be the home language, local language or the regional language.” However, it is nowhere written that doing so is compulsory. But those who criticize it say that this will force the schools to not teach in English and instead teach in regional languages which will not be beneficial for most of the people. 

        Suppose, you live in Tamilnadu and you child has studied until class 4 in Tamil. Thereupon, you shift to Maharashtra where most of schools would teach in Marathi and the child will not be able to adjust. This would restrict the movement of the people from one state to another and this might have a detrimental effect. It is written in the policy that no language would be forced. Although, it is also said that they would try to make Sanskrit and other classical language available at every level in schools as an option and after class 9, the options of foreign language will also be available like they are right now. In my opinion, it is important to give priority to English because today English, in a way, has become a global language of communication worldwide. 

           No matter which country you come from, I believe it is essential to learn English if you want to do anything at an international level. It is becoming essential to learn English in every country and this is an advantage for India in comparison to China and the rest of the South East Asian countries because there, people are not able to learn English to this extent. Since people in India speak English, they are able to compete in western countries, US and Europe.           

     2)  Several student and teachers’ bodies have criticized this policy of being anti democratic. Some political parties have also criticized it. They allege that the states were not consulted before making this policy. Since education is a concurrent subject that comes under both the center as well as state list, the states should have been consulted more before introducing this policy. It is also alleged that this policy promotes centralization because this policy has a point that states that a new teachers’ training board will be set up for all kinds of teachers in the country and no state can change that. The power has been taken from the states and placed with the central government. The powers have been made more centralized that the decision making regarding education would be done by the center. 

  3) Some points of criticism said that this policy is very theoretical. It does change things theoretically. But to implement them practically in real life, it is going to be a very long drawn and difficult process because there are so many government schools where children in the 6^th class have no teachers and sound infrastructure is not available in schools. The students are not educated properly and they drop out early. There are so many government schools with a serious dearth of available teachers so how are they going to impart vocational training and give the option of variety of subjects to children. This is also one of the criticisms because all these changes being brought superficially are extremely difficult to implement in reality.

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