Plan & actions of National Education Policy to be implemented from June 2023
National Education Policy (NEP) is supposed to get implemented from June this year. Let’s understand what all it includes. The New Education Policy 2020 rests on five pillars- Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability.
Plan
Details of the salient features of NEP 2020 are as follows-
- Ensuring Universal Access at All Levels of schooling from pre-primary school to Grade 12;
- Ensuring quality early childhood care and education for all children between 3-6 years;
- New Curricular and Pedagogical Structure (5+3+3+4);
- No hard separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams;
- Establishing National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy;
- Emphasis on promoting multilingualism and Indian languages; The medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother tongue/local language/regional language.
- Assessment reforms – Board Exams on up to two occasions during any given school year, one main examination and one for improvement, if desired;
- Setting up of a new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development);
- Equitable and inclusive education – Special emphasis given on Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs);
- A separate Gender Inclusion fund and Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups;
- Robust and transparent processes for recruitment of teachers and merit based performance;
- Ensuring availability of all resources through school complexes and clusters;
- Setting up of State School Standards Authority (SSSA);
- Exposure of vocational education in school and higher education system;
- Increasing GER in higher education to 50%;
- Holistic and Multidisciplinary Education with multiple entry/exit options;
- NTA to offer Common Entrance Exam for Admission to HEIs;
- Establishment of Academic Bank of Credit;
- Setting up of Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERUs);
- Setting up of National Research Foundation (NRF);
- ‘Light but Tight’ regulation;
- Single overarching umbrella body for promotion of higher education sector including teacher education and excluding medical and legal education- the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI)-with independent bodies for standard setting- the General Education Council; funding-Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC); accreditation- National Accreditation Council (NAC); and regulation- National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC);
- Expansion of open and distance learning to increase Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER).
- Internationalization of Education
- Professional Education will be an integral part of the higher education system. Stand-alone technical universities, health science universities, legal and agricultural universities, or institutions in these or other fields, will aim to become multi-disciplinary institutions.
- Teacher Education – 4-year integrated stage-specific, subject- specific Bachelor of Education
- Establishing a National Mission for Mentoring.
- Creation of an autonomous body, the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) to provide a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, administration. Appropriate integration of technology into all levels of education.
- Achieving 100% youth and adult literacy.
- Multiple mechanisms with checks and balances will combat and stop the commercialization of higher education.
- All education institutions will be held to similar standards of audit and disclosure as a ‘not for profit’ entity.
- The Centre and the States will work together to increase the public investment in Education sector to reach 6% of GDP at the earliest.
- Strengthening of the Central Advisory Board of Education to ensure coordination to bring overall focus on quality education.
Action & Implementation
Implementation of such an ambitious policy involving different agencies at various levels is a complex task. Understanding its complexity, the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL) organized stakeholder consultations under ‘ShikShak Parv’ and charted out implementation strategies.
These consultations resulted in an implementation plan by name SARTHAQ (Students and Teachers Holistic Advancement through Quality Education). This implementation plan defines activities with their tentative timelines, agencies responsible for implementation, and provides for joint monitoring by both Union and State governments. Additionally, priority is given to those areas where addition to existing activities is efficient than creating new structures entirely.
As part of this plan, 297 tasks were identified, and timelines set accordingly.
State-Wise Implementation
- In Maharashtra, the steering committee to suggest recommendation on implementation of NEP has submitted its report in March 2023 and discussions with universities and institutions are taking place.
- In 2021, Karnataka became the first state to issue an order pertaining to the implementation of NEP 2022.
- Madhya Pradesh later agreed to establish a New National Education Policy on August 26, 2021.
- Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath has stated that the NEP will be implemented in stages throughout the state.
- The state of Goa plans to introduce the NEP in 2023.
- States including as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Assam are also working to adopt the New NEP.
- Meghalaya’s chief minister stated that the state will soon be the first to fully implement the New National Education Policy.
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