Cabinet Approves National Education Policy 2020, paving way for transformational reforms in school and higher education systems in the country

News

• The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister approved the National Education Policy 2020, making way for large scale, transformational reforms in both school and higher education sectors.
• This is the first education policy of the 21st century and replaces the thirty-four year old National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986. 
• Built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability, this policy is aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and aims to transform India into a vibrant knowledge society and global knowledge superpower by making both school and college education more holistic, flexible, multidisciplinary, suited to 21st century needs and aimed at bringing out the unique capabilities of each student.

Important Highlights

Ensuring Universal Access at all levels of school education

• NEP 2020 emphasizes on ensuring universal access to school education at all levels- preschool to secondary.

Early Childhood Care & Education with  new Curricular and Pedagogical Structure

• With emphasis on Early Childhood Care and Education, the 10+2 structure of school curricula is to be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively. 
• NCERT will develop a National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECCE)for children up to the age of 8 .

Reforms in school curricula and pedagogy

• The school curricula and pedagogy will aim for holistic development of learnersby equipping them with the key 21^st century skills, reduction in curricular content to enhance essential learning and critical thinking and greater focus on experiential learning.
• Vocational education will start in schools from the 6^thgrade, and will include internships.

Multilingualism and the power of language

• The policy has emphasized mother tongue/local language/regional language as the medium of instruction at least till Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond.
• Sanskrit to be offered at all levels of school and higher education as an option for students, including in the three-language formula.

Equitable and Inclusive Education

• NEP 2020 aims to ensure that no child loses any opportunity to learn and excel because of the circumstances of birth or background. Special emphasis will be given on Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups(SEDGs) which include gender, socio-cultural, and geographical identities and disabilities. 
• This includes setting up of  Gender Inclusion Fund and also Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups. 

Standard-setting and Accreditation for School Education

• NEP 2020 envisages clear, separate systems for policy making, regulation, operations and academic matters.States/UTs will set up independent State School Standards Authority (SSSA).
• Transparent public self-disclosure of all the basic regulatory information, as laid down by the SSSA, will be used extensively for public oversight and accountability. The SCERT will develop a School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Framework (SQAAF)through consultations with all stakeholders.

Higher Education; Increase GER to 50 % by 2035

• NEP 2020 aims to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3% (2018) to 50% by 2035. 3.5 Crore new seats will be added to Higher education institutions.

Holistic Multidisciplinary Education

• The policy envisages broad based, multi-disciplinary, holistic Under Graduate  education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational educationand  multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification.
• UG education can be of 3 or 4 years with multiple exit options and appropriate certification within this period. For example,  Certificate after 1 year, Advanced Diploma after 2 years, Bachelor’s Degree after 3 years and Bachelor’s with Research after 4 years.
• An Academic Bank of Creditis to be established for digitally storing academic credits earned from different  HEIs so that these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned.
• The National Research Foundationwill be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.

 

Regulation

• Higher Education Commission of India(HECI) will be set up as a single overarching umbrella body the for entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education.
• HECI to have  four independent verticals  – National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) for regulation, General Education Council (GEC ) for standard setting, Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for funding,  and National Accreditation Council( NAC) for accreditation.

Rationalised Institutional Architecture

• Higher education institutions will be transformed into large, well resourced, vibrant multidisciplinary institutions  providing  high quality teaching, research, and community engagement.
• The definition of university will allow a spectrum of institutions that range from Research–intensive-Universitiesto Teaching–intensive Universities and Autonomous degree-granting Colleges. 
• Affiliation of colleges is to be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism is to be established for granting graded autonomy to colleges.

Motivated, Energized, and Capable Faculty

• NEP makes recommendations for motivating, energizing, and building capacity of  faculty thorughclearly defined, independent, transparent recruitment , freedom to design curricula/pedagogy, incentivising excellence, movement into institutional leadership.

Teacher Education

• A new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, NCFTE 2021, will be formulated by the NCTE in consultation with NCERT.

Financial support for students

• Efforts will be made to incentivize the merit of students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, and other SEDGs. The National Scholarship Portal will be expanded to support, foster, and track the progress of students receiving scholarships.

Online Education and Digital Education:

• A comprehensive set of recommendations for promoting online education consequent to the recent rise in epidemics and pandemics in order to ensure preparedness with alternative modes of quality education whenever and wherever traditional and in-person modes of education are not possible, has been covered.

Technology in education

• An autonomous body, the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF),will be created to provide a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, administration.

Promotion of Indian languages

• To ensure the preservation, growth, and vibrancy of all Indian languages, NEP recommends setting an Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI),National Institute (or Institutes) for Pali, Persian and Prakrit, strengthening of Sanskrit and all language departments in HEIs,  and use mother tongue/local language as a medium of instruction in more HEI  programmes .

Adult Education

• Policy aims to achieve 100% youth and adult literacy.