New Education Policy, 2020: A Vision For Next 100 Years

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character is the true essence of education— is a quote given by the Gandhi of America, Mr. Martin Luther King Jr.— who led the black community of the USA to struggle against the prevalent discrimination in the country during the 1960s. Keeping up with this idea, the BJP led government introduced the New Education Policy (NEP) during the pandemic hit year of 2020, the policy is very promising which can lead the youth of India to fulfill their aspirations in this millennium which has promised to bring new changes in multiple sectors. The last change to education policy before 2021 was done in 1985 without having an extensive consultation process,which was followed this time, given that the education ecosystem is said to be one which is outdated, the mere bringing in of NEP-2020, exposes the lethargic attitude of all previous governments towards the basic building block of any socio-economic society in the world. Why it took so much time to bring these changes in the land which has produced gems like Kautilya, Chanakya is also beyond comprehension. 

The New Education Policy on the outset is very impressive as its a comprehensive document that deals with the systematic changes encountered in the Indian education system, which has been accused by many students, practitioners, intellectuals as the one which is failing to meet the current standards set up in the world education. The structural issues that have seeped due to lack of policy update is manifesting itself with frequent complaints like no proper teaching methodology, no balance between teacher-student ratio in primary & higher secondary education, lack of personal connect between teachers & students, lack of adaptation of newer technologies in course pedagogy, income of teachers to name a few. The NEP solves these issues in its basic framework like teaching in mother tongue till class 12th which will enhance teacher-student relationship because when the interaction between students & teachers takes place in the mother tongue then there is more emotion attached to it as compared to any other language which is essentially a foreign language for the speaker as well as the listener. 

Furthermore, the NEP also provides the major relief of allowing foreign institutions to set up their campuses in India which will be a major relief to the students and teachers alike, who will get more options to apply to get “branded” foreign education at a cheaper rate within the nation, this would also have an unexpected casualty on the parallel training centers who prepare students to crack exams like GRE/GMAT/IELTS to name a few. In addition to these changes, the blueprint of NEP-2020 has proposed to integrate modern technologies by virtue of creation of NETF(New Education Technological Framework) which will be the vehicle of integrating technology from the levels of schools itself, this will definitely be difficult to implement, however, if implemented properly it has the potential to change the landscape of skill development in the country. 

To add on, the policy framework also gives the option of multiple entry-exit for students in their college years which can be utilized by them for fulfillment of different professional courses like CA, CS which are in high demand in recent times, proof of which is the increasing registration for the exam which stood at 1 lakh according to estimates by a leading national daily, this scheme provides flexibility to students as well as teachers who won't be burdened with pass percentage of batches which is needed. The NEP has brought in provisions for bringing in the CUET exam admission for social sciences in central universities which reduces the disparity between the science background students and non-science background students, given there is an altogether new system of examination that is being introduced, the policy successfully mitigates any loss of formal sources of parallel incomes for the teachers at large.

The NEP is reinstating the pride of teachers & the skills for students to be competitive in a manner that is economical as well as logical. It can be said that the NEP-2020 is definitely a vision document that is far sighted that will propel the youngsters to have technologically dexterity and reduce the impact of the coaching classes on the overall society. The NEP-2020 also has many more provisions which are designed to make the education system robust for the people. In totality, NEP-2020 is a forward thinking blueprint which will power India’s ambitions to be a Vishwaguru in the 21st century as affirmed by the great thinker Swami Vivekananda, who once quoted that, knowledge is power & getting one you can get another.