New Education Policy 2020: Impact on School Curriculum and Higher Education.
Newsletter Week 31: (26 Jul- 01 Aug’20)
On 29th July, Wednesday, the Union cabinet approved the National Education policy 2020 which aims at making “India a global knowledge superpower”.
One of the major decisions is changing the cabinet’s name from “Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD)” to “Ministry of Education” which suggests bringing back focus on education and learning.
The new policy introduces major changes for both higher education and schools’ curriculum.
Impact on School Curriculum:
· The NEP has expanded the schooling from age of 6–14 to the age group of 3–18 years of schooling (12 years of formal and 3 years of pre-schooling).
· Parents would also be given advice and guidelines to home-school their children aging 3–6 years.
· The 10+2 system to be replaced with the new framework divided into 5+3+3+4 format: 5 years of pre-schooling+ 3 years of preparatory stage (3–5th grade)+ 3 years of middle stage (^-8th grade) + 4 years of secondary stage (9–12th grade).
· Vocational education to be taught to children stating from 6th grade.
· Vocational Crafts would include carpentry, electric work, gardening pottery and more with internship opportunities.
· Students will be taught coding in schools from class 6th onwards as a vital skill.
· Examinations would be conducted only in class 3rd, 5th and 8th and would be twice a year following a semester system.
· The syllabus would be altered and reduced to the core knowledge only.
· Report cards would comprise of self-evaluation apart from feedback from peers besides the usual teacher’s assessment.
· 10th and 12th board exams to be conducted testing child’s “core capacities, competencies rather than months of coaching or memorization”.
· The division of Science, arts and commerce blurred- Students can choose subjects as per their interests across the streams.
· Apart from these, student’s mental health would also be put into consideration and counselors would be appointed by schools.
· The aim is to ensure the child to come out of school with at least one core skill.
Impact on higher education-
· Dissolution of AICTE, NCT and UGC to be replaced by Higher Education Commission of India(HECI) as a single overarching umbrella body for entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education.
· Both public and private institutes would be governed by same set of norms, academic standards and accreditation.
· Multiple exit options during UG course- comprises of certification after completion of 1 year education in any discipline, diploma after 2 years , bachelor’s degree after three and a bachelor’s degree with research after 4 years.
· Government to establish an Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) for digitally storing academic credits earned from different courses (these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned.)
· Under-graduate courses would be for 3 or 4 years and post graduate courses such as MA and MSc to be for one year or two years depending upon the UG course.
· MPhil will also be abolished
· International institutions to be invited to invest and open their campus in India.
· Integrated bachelors and masters would be for 5years.
· Online and distance education to be made mandatory for institutes.
The present Education Policy is 34 years-old which came into action in 1986. The effective implementation of the New Education Policy is expected to start from academic session of 2022–23.
