Education Policy gets a nod from Cabinet
New Education Policy 2020 HIGHLIGHTS: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the new National Education Policy (NEP) and renamed the HRD Ministry as Education Ministry. Making the announcement, Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said there would be a single regulator for all higher education institutions and MPhil would be discontinued.
In a bid to ramp up digital learning, a National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) would be created. “E-courses will be developed in eight regional languages initially and virtual labs will be developed,” Amit Khare, Higher Education Secretary, said.
Top 100 foreign colleges will be allowed to set-up campuses in India. According to the HRD Ministry document, listing salient features of policy, “such (foreign) universities will be given special dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms on par with other autonomous institutions of India.”
Read | Changes in TET, BEd courses, transfer and hiring process: What NEP 2020 has for teachers
Standalone Higher Education Institutes and professional education institutes will be evolved into multi-disciplinary education. “There are over 45,000 affiliated colleges in our country. Under Graded Autonomy, Academic, Administrative and Financial Autonomy will be given to colleges, on the basis of the status of their accreditation,” he further said.
Read | Key takeaways for NEP 2020
The committee — which suggested changes in the education system under the NEP — was headed by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan. The NEP was drafted in 1986 and updated in 1992. The NEP was part of the election manifesto of the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) ahead of the 2014 elections.
New Education Policy to have rules on education, recruitment of teachers among other issues (Representational image)
The NEP only provides a broad direction and is not mandatory to follow. Since education is a concurrent subject (both the Centre and the state governments can make laws on it), the reforms proposed can only be implemented collaboratively by the Centre and the states. This will not happen immediately. The incumbent government has set a target of 2040 to implement the entire policy. Sufficient funding is also crucial; the 1968 NEP was hamstrung by a shortage of funds.
“If there are going to be common entrance exams in universities, why do we need board exams? What is the need for duplication? A policy, which is now going to be in place for the next few decades, is completely silent on sports,” Delhi CM Manish Sisodia said on NEP
One of the permanent tasks of the NETF will be to categorise emergent technologies based on their potential and estimated timeframe for disruption, and to periodically present this analysis to MHRD. Based on these inputs, MHRD will formally identify those technologies whose emergence demands responses from the education system. Content will be available in regional languages also.
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 and so on, both for school and higher education.
The report cards of students will be reviewed by peers and teachers. Artificial Intelligence-based software could be developed and used by students to help track their growth through their school years based on learning data and interactive questionnaires for parents, students, and teachers.
The approval of the NEP by the government is a positive step forward. NEP is the outcome of an extensive, highly participatory and inclusive consultation process. NEP aims at meeting existing challenges in education and building the foundation of India’s promising future. We look forward to its implementation, said JNU V-C M Jagadesh Kumar.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) will now be provided additional charge to conduct entrance examinations for admissions to universities across the country, according to the New Education Policy (NEP) released on Wednesday.
As per the new policy, the entrance exam to be conducted by the NTA for admission to universities and colleges will be optional. The new system has some similarities to standardised aptitude test, SAT conducted for admissions in the United States of America.
Following a protest by political parties, the reference to Hindi and English in the draft NEP regarding the three-language formula has been dropped from the final policy document. “The three languages learned by children will be the choices of States, regions, and of the students, so long as at least two of the three languages are native to India,” the policy states.
On the medium of instruction in schools, the education policy states, “Wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the homelanguage/ mothertongue/ local language/ regional language. Thereafter, the home/local language shall continue to be taught as a language wherever possible. This will be followed by both public and private schools.”
Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Manish Doshi in a statement said that the new policy will promote commercialisation of education and a reduction in expenditure on education coupled with a reduction in scholarships, especially for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students.
Board exams will be low stake. The focus will be on testing concepts and knowledge application. All students will be allowed to take Board Exams on up to two occasions during any given school year, one main examination and one for improvement, if desired, as per the NEP
While the Board exams for Grades 10 and 12 will be continued, the existing system of Board and entrance examinations shall be reformed to eliminate the need for undertaking coaching classes. Board exams will be redesigned to encourage holistic development; students will be able to choose any of the subjects in which they take Board exams, depending on their individualized interests, as per the policy.
The government dropped the provision that stipulated Hindi as one of the languages that students should study in Grade 6 after protests from political parties, mainly in Tamil Nadu, who saw this as “imposition” of Hindi. Its biggest concession to the Sangh is more symbolic than substantive — renaming of the HRD Ministry to Ministry of Education.
All education institutions will be held to similar standards of audit and disclosure as a ‘not for profit’ entity. Surpluses, if any, will be reinvested in the educational sector, as per the NEP. There will be transparent public disclosure of all these financial matters with recourse to grievance-handling mechanisms to the general public. All fees and charges set by private HEIs will be transparently and fully disclosed, and there shall be no arbitrary increases in these fees/charges during the period of enrolment of any student.
BVoc degrees introduced in 2013 will continue to exist, but vocational courses will also be available to students enrolled in all other Bachelor’s degree programmes, including the four-year multidisciplinary Bachelor’s programmes. ‘Lok Vidya’, that is, important vocational knowledge developed in India, will be made accessible to students through integration into vocational education courses.
Vocational education will be integrated into all schools and higher education institutions in a phased manner over the next decade. By 2025, at least 50% of learners through the school and higher education system shall have exposure to vocational education, for which a clear action plan with targets and timelines will be developed.
An Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) shall be established which would digitally store the academic credits earned from various recognized HEIs so that the degrees from an HEI can be awarded taking into account credits earned. For instance, now if a student covers a topic related to his or her degree
Imaginative and flexible curricular structures will enable creative combinations of disciplines for study, and would offer multiple entry and exit points. Curricula of all HEIs shall include credit-based courses and projects in the areas of community engagement and service, environmental education, and value-based education.
The undergraduate degree will be of either 3 or 4-year duration, with multiple exit options, as informed by the Education Ministry. After completing one year, a student will get a certificate in a discipline or field including vocational and professional areas, a diploma if a student leaves after 2 years of study, or a Bachelor’s degree after a 3-year programme. The 4-year multidisciplinary Bachelor's programme, however, shall be the preferred option and will give degree with research if a student has pursued a project along with it.
Research-intensive Universities. Those that place greater emphasis on teaching but still conduct significant research i.e. Teaching-intensive Universities. Autonomous degree-granting College (AC) will refer to a large multidisciplinary that grants undergraduate degrees and is primarily focused on undergraduate teaching though it would not be restricted to that.
By 2040, all higher education institutions (HEIs) shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions, each of which will aim to have 3,000 or more students. There shall, by 2030, be at least one large multidisciplinary HEI in or near every district. The aim will be to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3% (2018) to 50% by 2035.
Sanskrit will be mainstreamed with strong offerings in school - including as one of the language options in the three-language formula - as well as in higher education. Sanskrit Universities too will move towards becoming large multidisciplinary institutions of higher learning.
Under the NEP the world’s top 100 foreign universities will be “facilitated” to operate in India through a new law. According to the HRD Ministry document, listing salient features of policy, “such (foreign) universities will be given special dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms on par with other autonomous institutions of India.”
Even engineering institutions, such as IITs, will move towards more holistic and multidisciplinary education with more arts and humanities. Students of arts and humanities will aim to learn more science and all will make an effort to incorporate more vocational subjects and soft skills.
Departments in Languages, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Indology, Art, Dance, Theatre, Education, Mathematics, Statistics, Pure and Applied Sciences, Sociology, Economics, Sports, Translation and Interpretation, etc. will be established and strengthened at all higher educatio institutes.
Departments in Languages, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Indology, Art, Dance, Theatre, Education, Mathematics, Statistics, Pure and Applied Sciences, Sociology, Economics, Sports, Translation and Interpretation, etc. will be established and strengthened at all higher educatio institutes.
By 2040, all higher education institutions (HEIs) shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions, each of which will aim to have 3,000 or more students.
Undergrad autonomy, academic, administrative, and financial autonomy will be given to colleges, on the basis of the status of their accreditation. India has over 45,000 affiliated colleges
The common Entrance exam for all higher education institutes to be held by NTA. The exam will be optional and not mandatory.
Life skills to be taught every year. Report card to have reviewed from teachers, peers, and students as well. Review assessment of performance. AI-based assessment of each year to be given to the student.
Board exams to undergo a huge change. Like mathematics for CBSE, all courses to be offered in two languages. The board exams across states to test knowledge application and not rote learning. For each subject to test objective and descriptive exam
Mathematical thinking, scientific temper to be part of course. Co-curriculum subjects like sports, vocational, arts, commerce, science, everything will be at the same level. Students can opt for courses as per choice. Students to be allowed to take up coding from class 6.
The 10+2 system will be divided into 5+3+3+4 format. The NEPchanges the school education system to 5+3+3+4 format. This means the first five years of the school will comprise of the foundation stage including three years of pre-primary school and classes 1 and class 2. The next three years will be divided into a preparatory stage from classes 3 to 5. Later three years of middle stage (classes 6 to 8), and four years of secondary stage (classes 9 to 12). Schools will not have any rigid formation of streams of arts, commerce, science, students can take up whichever courses they want.
Tech to be part of education planning, teaching, learning, assessment, teacher, school, and student training. The e-content to be available in regional languages. Starting with 8 major languages - Kannada, Odia, Bengali among others to join the e-courses available in Hindi and English.
Standalone Higher Education Institutes and professional education institutes will be evolved into multi-disciplinary education. Special education zones for disadvantaged regions. Govt to set-up a National Technology Forum to impart knowledge online.
Public investment in the education sector to reach 6% of GFP at the earliest. Currently it's around 4.43% including state and center govt.
Not just courses but universities to go multi-disciplinary. For public and private HEIs, common norms will be given. This means the fee will be fixed within the regulatory framework and no extra fee will be charged beyond the cap.
Multiple entry, exit points. MPhil to be discontinued. To pursue research, MPhil will not be allowed, All courses at ug, pg, PhD level to be interdisciplinary.
Aim to increase the gross enrolment ratio to 50% by 2035. To ensure the same, holistic, and multidisciplinary education with flexibility of subjects to be allowed.
Last NEP was the last set-up in 1968 and updated in 92. It has been followed since then. The NEP 2020 will be available in 22 languages and audio books.
Cabinet has approved the New Education Policy and I hope it will be welcomed and accepted by all sections of the society, said Javadekar
HRD Minister Pokhriya, I&B Minister Javadekar, Secretary higher education Amit Khare and Secretary School education Anita Karwal start address.
The new policy is expected to focus on a multi-lingual education system which means, the teachers will teach not only in English but also in regional Indian languages. MHRD already runs programmes to teach students regional languages spoken in other states.
The consultation process for New Education Policy started from 2015 and the final policy is expected to be out today. The policy is expected to be announced jointly by the HRD Minister Pokhriyal and current I&B Minister who had held the HRD portfolio during the formation of NEP - Prakash Javadekar.
The NEP draft also suggested a national academic credit bank (NACB) which will store credits accumulated by a student on completing a course or subject in a program. These credits will help one transfer easily from one course or institute to another. For instance, courses that one pursues on SWAYAM will hold credits or marks in the assessment system for degree course one is pursuing fulltime in a college if the courses are related.
It is likely that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) will be renamed as Ministry of Education. The same is expected to be announced by the ministers today. Address to begin shortly.
The NEP draft had suggested to set-up a National Research Foundation (NRF) – an autonomous body, for funding, mentoring and building ‘quality of research’ in India with a budget of Rs 20,000 core (roughly 0.1 per cent of GDP). As per the draft - NRF will run a special programme till 2040 to support State Universities to enhance their research capacities, as per suggestions. Which suggestions made it to the final policy will be revealed today.
After the Cabinet's approval to the NEP today. The two union ministers - Ramesh Pokhroyal Nishank and Prakash Javadekar - who have worked on the new education policy will be addressing media at 4 p.m. It is expected that the NEP 2020 will be released for public today via the address.
The current HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had in several media addresses claimed that NEP will be an India-centric policy which will join the Indian youth with the latest education as well as Indian roots. He had said earlier that NEP will be about ‘gyan, vigyan, anusandhan, vichar, sanskar’ - which can be roughly translated in English as - 'knowledge, science, research, ideas, and tradition'
The draft National Education Policy (NEP) had made several suggestions. One of them was to change the school education system to 5+3+3+4 format. This means the first five years of the school will comprise of the foundation stage including three years of pre-primary school and classes 1 and class 2. The next three years will be divided into a preparatory stage from classes 3 to 5. Later three years of middle stage (classes 6 to 8), and four years of secondary stage (classes 9 to 12).
After long debates, discussions, suggestions, public feedback, and changes - the final policy got a nod from the Cabinet today. The Minister of HRD Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, and former HRD Minister who currently is heading I&B Ministry - Prakash Javadekar will jointly address media and share the policy at 4 pm.
A panel of experts led by the former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan had discussed about the issues and changes tobe bring about in the Indian education system - ranging from school to college to recruitment. These suggestions were compiled and then these were approved by Ministry. A draft education policy was uploaded for public feedback. The ministry has claimed to have got over 2 lakh responses which were considered before releasing the final policy.