The government launched the National Education Policy 2020 on 29 July after over three decades. It is an extension of Right to Education Act to cover all children between three and 18 years of age. The HRD ministry is now renamed Education Ministry.
Highlights of the new policy are as under:
- The mother tongue or local or regional language is to be the medium of instruction in all schools up to Class 5. Under the NEP 2020, Sanskrit will be offered at all levels and foreign languages from the secondary school level. However, no language will be imposed on any student.
- The 10+2 structure is to be replaced with 5+3+3+4 system, consisting of 12 years of school and three of pre-school learning. This will include a foundational stage (ages three and eight), three years of pre-primary (ages eight to 11), a preparatory stage (ages 11 to 14) and a secondary stage (ages 14 to 18). The revised structure will bring hitherto uncovered age group of three to six years, for development of mental faculties, under school curriculum.
- Instead of exams being held every year, school students will sit only for three exams – at Classes 3, 5 and 8. Assessment in other years will be done on a regular and formative style that is more competency-based. This will promote learning and development and will test higher-order skills, such as analysis, critical thinking and conceptual clarity.
- Board exams will continue to be held for Classes 10 and 12 in a re-designed format with holistic development as the aim. Standards for this will be established by a new National Assessment Centre – PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development).
- The policy aims at reducing curriculum load of students and allows them to become more multi-disciplinary and multi-lingual. There will be no rigid separation between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities and between vocational and academic stream.
- To that end, the policy also proposes that higher education institutions like the IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) move towards “holistic education” by 2040 with greater inclusion of arts and humanities subjects.
- The NEP 2020 proposes a four-year undergraduate programme with multiple exit options to give students flexibility. A multi-disciplinary bachelor’s degree will be awarded after completing four years of study. Students exiting after two years will get a diploma and those leaving after 12 months will be have studied a vocational/professional course.
- A Higher Education Council of India (HECI) will be set up to regulate higher education; the focus will be on institutions that have 3,000 or more students.
- The HECI will have four independent verticals – National Higher Education Regulatory Council for regulation, General Education Council to set standards, Higher Education Grants Council for funding and National Accreditation Council for accreditation. The new policy has done away with M Phil courses.
- Top 100 foreign colleges will be allowed to set up campuses in India.