National Education Policy, 2020: Glimmer of Hope but not the Sparkle

This article was written by Naina Agarwal, a student of Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala.

National Education Policy is a comprehensive framework to direct the education and related development in India. First such policy was devised due to constructive criticism due to lack of philosophy and vision in the field of education by Congress MP Siddheshwar Prasad in 1964. The need was felt and hence, 17-member Education Commission was set up under then UGC Chairman D S Kothari to give shape to a coordinated policy. On the recommendations of the committee, First Education Policy was passed in 1968.[1] The Second Education Policy rolled out in 1986 under Rajiv Gandhi’s regime.[2] The same was revised in 1992 under Prime Ministership of P V Narsimha Rao. The third National Education Policy was released after 34 years under the Modi Government.[3] Based on the principles of equity, accessibility, accountability, quality, affordability the government aims to align the policy on 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

New Education Policy in Nutshell

The New Policy[4] strives for universalization of education with attainment of cent percent Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2030 in school education covering pre-school to secondary level. Whereas it aims for 50% rise in GER by 2025 in case of higher education. The Policy visualizes to bring back two crores children into mainstream, which are currently out of school. The Policy sweeps out University Grants Commission and All India Council for Technical Education and proposes to open up Higher Education Commission of India as an umbrella body. However, the body excludes medical and legal education. The government will adopt state wise mechanism for the grant of graded autonomy to institutions/colleges. There shall be no stricter distinction between commerce, arts and science or curricular and extra-curricular activities or academic line and vocational courses. The students are free to choose their subjects depending upon their interests so that more doors are open for different career prospects rather than the fixed stream after picking up a specialization. Vocational education and internships have been emphasized for students studying in 6^th class onwards.[5]

The policy aims to overhaul the syllabi or curriculum of the Board exams so as to make it easier. Reduction of the same would lead to retention of core principles and give space to critical thinking which vanishes away with gargantuan syllabus, thereby itself defeating the very purpose of learning. It discontinues the M Phil Programme along with introduction of a four-year multidisciplinary programme for undergraduates with various exit options according to the interests of the child. The policy also aims towards an instrumental paradigm shift from 10+2 structure to 5+3+3+4 corresponding to foundational phase (3-8 years), preparatory stage (8-11 years), middle phase (11-14 years) and lastly the secondary stage, i.e. 14-18 years. By this, the government included pre-school education under formal schooling. They have also extended the mid-day meal programme for them. It also provides that the children until Class 5 must be taught in their regional language or mother tongue so that learning becomes a piece of cake and enjoyable too!

Moreover, it would set up a standard setting body called PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) along with National Assessment Centre. It also directs setting up of Gender Inclusion Fund and Special Education Zones for disadvantaged strata and areas which is well appreciable owing to the discrimination faced by such groups in all stages of life. The districts and states shall be encouraged to open ‘Bal Bhavans’ to increase participation in play, career and art related activities in these special daytime boarding schools. It also lays special emphasis on children with disabilities to increase their participation. In order to suit their needs, cross-disability training, adoption of latest technology for support mechanisms, assistive devices, resource centres etc. must be endorsed.

Campus of Foreign Universities to set up in India

The policy allows the top 100 global universities to set up their campus in India. However, it fails to elucidate the parameter to define or judge the top 100 universities. It is thus suggestive, that the government may use ‘QS World University Rankings’[6] since it has relied on this ranking in the past when it gave the status of ‘Institute of Eminence’. But this leaves a grey area and definitely calls for law or mechanism to allow foreign universities to operate in India. It is worth noting that in 2013, the UPA-II also strived to pass a similar bill. During that time, the report[7] of The Indian Express highlighted that the top 20 universities in the world including Yale, MIT, Cambridge, Stanford, were unwilling to set up their campuses in India. Therefore, there lies a great challenge ahead as currently participation of global universities pertains to mere collaborative programmes, exchange programme, distance education or faculty sharing with collaborated institutions.

Legal Education and National Education Policy

The Policy aims to bring major reforms in the legal education by suggesting it to make bilingual for future judges and lawyers so that it alleviates the delay owing to need for translations. The Policy discourages the setting up of stand-alone universities for medical, legal, agriculture or technical fields and aims to convert them into a multi-disciplinary one by 2030. It visualizes to restructure to become globally competitive by adoption of best practices and acceptance of latest technology for equal access for all and timely delivery of justice. It states,

“At the same time, it must be informed and illuminated with Constitutional values of Justice – Social, Economic, and Political – and directed towards national reconstruction through instrumentation of democracy, rule of law, and human rights. The curricula for legal studies must reflect socio-cultural contexts along with, in an evidence-based manner, the history of legal thinking, principles of justice, the practice of jurisprudence, and other related content appropriately and adequately.”[8]

How to Implement such Policy?

The National Education Policy is merely advisory in nature and not a mandatory one. It comes under the purview of concurrent subject, i.e. laws pertaining to the subject matter can be legislated by both, the centre and the state governments. Therefore, this calls for a collaboration between the centre and the state governments to enforce this. The government has also set the year 2040 as the target year to implement entire policy. The other issue that grapples the successful implementation is the insufficient funding. Shortage of funds was also a stumbling block in the successful implementation of 1986 Policy. The policy sheds light on the recommendation of setting up subject-wise committees comprising members from ministries of both centre and state to implement the policy. It enlists multiple bodies like NCERT, school boards, HRD ministry, State Education Departments, National Testing Agency etc. to take actions.

Critical Assessment: Are We Still Lacking?

The primary schools in India are in a very poor state with shocking illiteracy, whereas dropouts in middle and secondary groups is significant. The higher education has also failed miserably due to multi-disciplinary programmes. Under the policy, the government has aimed to increase the spending from 4% of GDP to 6%. But this seems impossible on the notion that in the first policy also, it was articulated to spend 6% and every year since then governments have made an effort to achieve the target but ends up moving against its own Finance Ministry. Also, since 6 years of Modi regime, no real development has taken place due to fall in expenditure on this sector. The goals to achieve 50% GER in higher education and 100% in secondary educations seems a far-fetched idea since currently it is posed at 26.3%[9] and 68%[10] respectively. It fails to focus on research and development in India which plays a crucial role for advancement. Investments on Research and Innovation in India have declined to 0.6% of GDP in 2018 from 0.84% in 2008.[11] This sheds light on how far we are from China, in a way that they have 111 researchers per 1,00,000 of population whereas India has merely 15 at present.

Promotion of mother tongue by way of medium of instruction till class 5 might not prove laudable. It comes with the challenge of availability of teaching and learning material which is currently available in very less standardized languages. This required investment to include more languages to accommodate the tribal people and their languages. Along with investment, due consideration must be paid to the existing status of vernaculars. Not enough literature and teachers are available. In the contemporary era of 21^st Century, if the government plans to teach children in mother tongue till Class 5, then will it start the basics of English from Class 6? The learning of language involves surrounding with the language. It is also a fallacy in the sense that people from North-Eastern and Southern states cannot communicate in Hindi and ultimately will lack in white collar jobs which often requires communication in English. It will also widen the gap between influential and weaker sections because big schools won’t give up on English. Though, the imposition of the language was a result of colonialization, but with the passage of time, it has become part and parcel of life. China spends huge amount, labour and resources for learning the language. Therefore, we must not give up the advantage we have over them. Also, if English is made optional till Class 8, then all the paperwork and documentation in the government offices will have to be done in mother tongue in the near future.[12]

The Policy to promote real learning instead of rote one considers taking up examination only in Classes 3, 5 and 8. Examination is not a standard to check just the potential but it teaches one to prepare and check themselves for education and life. If the foundation gets weak, the structure definitely falls one or the other day. This proves out to be running away from the problem instead of solving the same. Rather than following this pattern, a more pragmatic and sensitive approach could have been followed to instill life skills in the young ignited minds of tomorrow.

Concluding Remarks         

The New Education Policy has many laudable clauses like achieving of GER, setting up of campuses of foreign universities in India, discontinuation of M Phil, setting up of PARAKH, special emphasis on disabled children, setting up of gender inclusive fund in order to accommodate discriminated gender, stress on special zones for disadvantaged strata and all these heading towards universalization of education. However, there lies a great challenge in the implementation of the policy due to various factors like shortage of fund, behaviour of people, inclusion on tribals, etc. It also poses challenges in terms of operationalization of various clauses like setting up of foreign universities, creating space for bilingual studies in legal education, promotion of mother tongue till Class 5 in the contemporary times. It is also worth observing that how and what the government will do to increase their funding to 6% of GDP in the education sector, since currently it is way less than that. Also, since ‘education’ falls under the Concurrent List, therefore, it will be troublesome to implement the same as it calls for a lot of deliberation and cooperation.

[1] National Policy on Education, 1968, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/document-reports/NPE-1968.pdf.

[2] National Policy on Education, 1986, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/npe.pdf.

[3] National Education Policy, 2020, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English.pdf.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ravi Prakash Kumar, National Education Policy: Five big changes in school, higher education explained, Livemint, https://www.livemint.com/education/news/new-education-policy-five-big-changes-in-school-higher-education-explained-11596098141333.html

[6] Ritika Chopra, Explained: Reading the new National Education Policy 2020, The Indian Express, https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/reading-new-education-policy-india-schools-colleges-6531603/

[7] Anubhuti Vishnoi, Foreign varsities show no interest in India campus, The Indian Express, http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/foreign-varsities-show-no-interest-in-india-campus/1172513/.

[8] Supra note 3.

[9] Gross enrolment ratio in higher education rises, Business Standard, https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/gross-enrolment-ratio-in-higher-education-increases-119092200030_1.html.

[10] Educational Statistics at a Glance, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/statistics-new/ESAG-2018.pdf.

[11] India’s R&D spend stagnant for 20 years at 0.7% of GDP, The Economic Times, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/indias-rd-spend-stagnant-for-20-years-at-0-7-of-gdp/articleshow/62697271.cms?from=mdr.

[12] Arunima Sinha, Why the New Education Policy 2020 is full of loopholes? Daily O, https://www.dailyo.in/politics/national-education-policy-2020-education-in-india-mother-tongue-sanskrit-examination/story/1/33419.html.