What is New Education Policy 2020? Why now? Major reflection of NEP 2020 in regards of schooling in India

Finally after ages of wishing India not only get successful in inaugurating the Ram Mandir but also in establishing new education policy. The old National Policy on education was framed in 1986.

Human resources are considered one of the fundamental elements of any Nation also known as the power of any country. Therefore, it won’t be unfair if we call a new education pattern as, “Nye Bharat ki, nye Shakti”.

So, let dive deep and analyze how well the power in the circuit follows.

National Education Policy 2020

In India, the government initiates the policy on education after every few years to maintain and upgrade the existing system of learning, as it is considered an important element of human resource development.

India’s first version of education policy was launched in 1968, with the major objective of providing education facilities to all the citizens of the nation also known as, Radical Restructuring”. Another, phase of education policy was launched in 1986 which is approx. after 18 years.

However, the third version of education policy is launched after 34 years i.e. New Education Policy 2020.

Why national education policy now? 

After the launch of the recent education policy approx. 75% of the people in the country believe it, to be the best education policy ever since independence as it covers almost every aspect/loophole in meeting international standards. Whereas there are still 25% of people who speculate it to be more theorize, less feasible and considering the changes, ”WHY NOW?” and not decade back. 

Major troubles in the earlier schooling system of India and how NEP 2020 answers to it?

1. The old academic structure is kind of a pain in the ass:

India follows the structure of 10+2 where the schooling of a child starts at the age of 6 years. Neurosciences suggest that at birth, the size of a child’s brain is only 25% of the size of an adult’s brain. By the time child reaches the age of 3yrs the size of the child’s brain raises to 80% the size of an adult brain. The rate of transformation during this period is very high and science considers this phase as a perfect time to nurture a child’s mind.

We all know that every child carries their personality traits, but brain development can also be influenced by the external environment. There’s no better time than between the age of 3 to 5 to nurture a child’s creative mind.

2. What is there for the students who want to belong in there, “custom box”?

The earlier education system follows the structure of 10+2 where the schooling of a child starts at the age of 6 years and missing all those precious years of learning and crafting a child’s mind. The new academic structure has given importance to the above facts of neuroscience and accordingly introduced a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure. That will help to provide exposure at an early stage of development.

3. Categorization of students into 3 major streams. ”What if someone doesn’t belong in any of them?”

One of the major setbacks of the earlier education system was its ability to try to fit the student into a particular box i.e. science, commerce, and humanity.

What if a student doesn’t want to belong in any of the pre-determined boxes of education structure?

Well, the new education policy 2020 has removed all these restrictions and made it more liberal for the students to select any of the random subjects that they like and want to learn and grow further. That means now a student has the power to choose and build his portfolio in a manner that will back him up in following his passion. 

4. What is there for the students who want to belong in there, “custom box”?

Earlier students are categories into 3 streams although vocational courses are also available if one wants to pursue with them. But the choices and flexibility are something that is not the part of curriculum. Also, the perspective of society towards pursuing a vocational course is quite devastating even now as well.

Through the new education policy government has tried to inculcate the vocational culture in the country as they have made vocational training part of the curriculum after sixth grade. So, now this helps students to explore different kinds of professions at an early age and accordingly take baby steps in further nurturing their skills at school level only.

5. A chance for the students to be their own biggest supporter and critics at the same time.

Earlier education system advocates the philosophy of rote learning where every child is measured with one variable only. Their “power to memorize” decides their grade.

In one of my previous blogs, I mentioned this thing that school education is something that provides us with the knowledge to perceive the circumstance we are in. After school life, it is our self-analysis or self-awareness about us that help us to stay more focused and concentrated in our life.

Also Read: Are you aware or self-aware?

Now, new education policy 2020 has given importance to the critical development of student brain where he or she can self-assess them and that will decide their grade in the report cards.

In my opinion, it is a great initiative as we have seen lakhs of students passing every year with no self-awareness of what they like, what they love doing, what’s their purpose, etc. They just simply running the race society has decided for them.

5. Scaling of annual expenditure budget on education.

India is one of the world’s greatest economies where the density of the young population is quite higher. Therefore, it is natural for such a nation to spend a huge amount of money on its educational infrastructure so that it can develop its human resource better.

But talking about India as of 2018-19 they are spending approx. 3% of its GDP to uplift education i.e. quite low. According, to IMD India, ranks 62nd in terms of total public expenditure on education per student including the measure of the quality of education i.e. pupil-teacher ratio.

New education policy 2020 however pushes the expenditure limits of the government from an existing 3% to 6% of GDP. That is exactly the double of the currently running expenditure. This decision in policy is one of the most appreciated among others. Most of the developed countries spend around 4% to 6% of GDP on their education infrastructure.

Conclusion:

The Government has done a great job in building the new education policy 2020. As our education system has seen a lot of changes and experimentation in the last decade. In terms of bringing the semester system up to class 10th and introduction of CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) pattern. The option of choosing either board or non-board in class 10th. However, all the earlier experiment was a big failure for the government only because of lack of proper implementation and lack of properly skilled teachers to back up their promises.

Apart from the above, there are a lot of changes at the higher education level and internationally. That will be covered up in-depth in the upcoming next blog along with the major challenges and improvements. Till then stay tuned and aware.

Also Read: Tale of education in India