FlippED is an ED Original style wherein two bloggers come together to share their opposing or orthogonal perspectives on an interesting subject.
India has faced many unprecedented challenges that have hinged our efforts since Independence in providing quality education to children.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 attempts to liberate India from these shackles of the past since the last one was undertaken 34 years ago (in 1986) and modified in 1992 had failed to achieve its goal.
Let’s see what our bloggers have to say about it.
Blogger Sejal’s Opinion:
No sanction can ever be given to a policy on education that is based on the architecture of exclusion!
The concept of NEP 2020 is innovative and the suggested approach looks impressive as well. However, any major reform in the Indian higher education system, which is one of the largest in the world, will be an Everest task to implement.
Because we need not only a clear-cut and time-bound implementation strategy but also continuous support and commitment of policymakers (Which is, per se, a major task) along with a few ground realities that should be kept in mind.
And by ground realities, I meant cases like ‘marks for money’, ‘flyby degrees’ and ‘Honorary doctorates’ awarded by some deemed universities for a few lakhs of rupees. How does NEP 2020 plans to address these issues on quality and academic dishonesty?
Autonomy is a privilege and is provided to those colleges that maintain a consistent high-quality educational standard. Unfortunately, a majority of private colleges in the country are owned and administrated by politicians, real estate barons and businessmen.
There is no philanthropy or any standard of quality in their functioning. And the withdrawal of the government to encourage privatisation to provide equal quality public education bristles with contradiction to what the policy stands for. Even though the policy harps on the need for ‘quality’ and ‘non-profit’ education for all.
NEP 2020: A Paper Policy
Currently, there is a shortage of over 40% of teachers in higher educational institutions and unless we have a good number of quality teachers, NEP’s vision of making Indian education capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century is merely a cinderella story (in which the fairy Godmother – clear implementation strategy – is missing).
NEP is designed to incorporate all the global standards of education, however, the irony is that it drastically differs from all the fundamentals adopted by world leaders in education for decades.
The policy also proposes to make the RTE Act ‘flexible’. It says the emphasis would not be on inputs, but rather the outcome. To put it simply, there will be no norms or standards to set up a school which means that anybody can set up a school and interestingly, the 66-page policy constantly harps on quality education for all.
The policy aims to steer away from rote learning but imposes the load of three languages, two from Class I and three from Class III. While the policy constantly mentions the need for the inclusion of socio-economically disadvantaged groups.
It is interesting to note that the education of these children has been possible because schools were available in their localities.
However, thousands of such schools in many states have already been closed owing to multiple factors, thereby making them unviable. School complexes located far away from their locality with the promise of multidisciplinary education can never amount to any compensation to these children, who lose their village school.
Yes, we need world-class education, but not by excluding the underprivileged and invisible section of the society and ensuring the domination of the privileged ones. For no sanction can ever be given to a policy on education that is based on the architecture of exclusion.
Read more: New Chinese Education Policy To Make Boys More ‘Manly’
Blogger Shouvonik’s Opinion:
NEP 2020 policy is the closest we have come to universal education in India
NEP: A Well Thought Out And Researched Plan
The core principle of NEP is multilingualism while studying, which has been proved by researchers in UNESCO, to have more cognitive effects on a child’s brain than any 1 language.
The added advantage of this is a greater and more integrated India that does justice to the diversity and cultural heritage of India.
This policy is the closest we have come to universal education in India. This policy aims to remove the discrepancy there was in the primitive years of the CISCE and CBSE board.
More than that, this policy also lays down proposals to build a better infrastructure, add more innovative teaching centres, appoint trained teachers and counsellors to take care of the holistic development of a child.
NEP looks to change the system of 10+2 to 5+3+3+4, which is a boon because children will not have to pick their way through all the subjects they do not like for 10 years, and rather have flexibility in choosing the subject they would like to opt for in successive age groups.
NEP Guiding Principles
The NEP lays emphasis in recognizing, identifying, and fostering the unique capabilities of each student, which brings out the best in them; in conceptual approach rather than rote learning; in life skills like communication and cooperation; in the extensive use of technology to make sure the best possible education is received by the future generations.
The fact that it is a 66-page long document that is available, is absolutely brilliantly researched and a game-changer in how education will be perceived in India.
This policy also looks at our culture and tradition, both ancient and modern, as a part of holistic education that had been lacking in the current curriculum.
A major drawback that was properly averted was the different stages of education that is greatly stressed in this plan. NEP lays down an educational regime from the age of 3 whereas the current curriculum has it from 6, which is a loss of three crucial foundational years.
The education to be received is further divided into categories, with a detailed explanation as to how these years will be crucial for the particular age group.
The categories are primarily, “Foundational” for ages 3-8, “Preparatory” for ages 8-11, “Middle” for ages 11-14, “Secondary” for ages 14-18.
As for the question of implementation, this also has a policy wherein multiple bodies like MHRD, CABE, Union and State Governments, education-related Ministries, State Departments of Education, Boards, NTA, the regulatory bodies of school and higher education, NCERT, SCERTs, schools, and HEIs lead the initiative to bring forward a change in education over a span of a couple of decades.
So, in effect, it will be a slow but gradual change up until the year 2040 to ease children into the new National Education Policy 2020.
Image credits: Google images
Sources: Bloggers’ own experience
Find the blogger at @sejalsejals38
This post is tagged under: NEP 2020, National Education Policy 2020, Universities, What does NEP 2020 says?, MHRD, CBSE, CABE, Union and State Governments, education-related Ministries, State Departments of Education, Boards, NTA, SCERTs, schools, and HEIs Secondary education, primary education, need for ‘quality’ and ‘non-profit’ education, What is NEP 2020, Is NEP really good for students?, Privitization of education sector, The RTE Act, Implementation of NEP 2020, How’s NEP 2020 going to be implemented, what is the implementation strategy of NEP 2020
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