New Delhi: On Wednesday, the union cabinet approved the new National Education Policy (NEP).
Single regulator for higher education institutions, multiple entry and exit options in degree courses, discontinuation of M.Phil programmes, low stakes board exams, common entrance exams for universities are some of the highlights of the policy, which aims to achieve 100 per cent youth and adult literacy before 2035.
The government will increase public spending on education to nearly 6 per cent of gross domestic product from around 4 per cent now and the HRD Ministry will be renamed as Education Ministry.
Here are the key features of the new policy.
SCHOOL-LEVEL REFORMS
• Medium of instruction: 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.
• New structure: 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. The new system will have 12 years of schooling with three years of Anganwadi/ pre schooling.
• Curriculum: School curriculum will be reduced to core concepts. Vocational education will be integrated from 6th grade. A new national curriculum framework will be introduced for ECCE, school, teachers and adult education.
• Evaluation: Report cards will be a comprehensive report on skills and capabilities instead of just marks and statements.
• Boards: Board exams will be low stakes and test actual knowledge instead of rote learning.
• Sanskrit: 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.
•State schools: States/UTs will set up independent State School Standards Authority (SSSA). The SCERT will develop a School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Framework (SQAAF)
HIGHER EDUCATION
•Holistic Multidisciplinary Education: 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.
• Entrance: Common entrance exams to be held for admission to universities and higher education institutions. A National Testing Agency will be formed for this purpose.
• MPhil courses to be discontinued under new National Education Policy. To do research, MPhil will not be allowed. All the courses at UG, PG and PhD level will be interdisciplinary.
• Single regulator: All higher education institutions, except legal and medical colleges, to be governed by single regulator.
• Autonomy: There are over 45,000 affiliated colleges in our country. Under graded autonomy, academic, administrative & financial autonomy will be given to colleges, on the basis of the status of their accreditation.
• Online courses: E-courses will be developed in regional languages.
• Virtual labs will be developed and a National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) is being created.
TEACHER RECRUITMENT
• A common National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by the National Council for Teacher Education by 2022.
HOW THE POLICY WAS FINALISED
A panel led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Kasturirangan had submitted the draft of the new NEP to Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' when he took charge last year.
The draft was then put in public domain to seek feedback from various stakeholders and over two lakh suggestions were received by the HRD Ministry about the same.
Following the new education policy and reforms, we will achieve 50 per cent Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) by 2035, says Amit Khare Higher Education Secretary.
The existing NEP was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992.
