Rote memorization, defunct, standardized test, rigidity and lack of diversity are some of the words, which to a great extent describe the present education system of our country. Our Education System is marked by terms such as ‘Examinations’, ‘Board Exams’, ‘Entrance Exams’, ‘Marks’, which nonetheless affirms that it is quite focused on rote memorization rather than adopting skill based education and focusing on the innate skills of the students. Further, the college entrance exams conducted by our education system suffer from the dearth of concepts, critical thinking and various ways of looking at the avenues of knowledge.

This traditional system of education in our country, required a much needed radical change and the same has been brought about by the National Education Policy, 2020(Policy) which was approved by the Union Cabinet on 29.07.2020. It aims to revamp the aspects of the education structure by creating a new system which is aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st century. It focuses upon the development of cognitive skills, soft skills alongwith greater focus on discovery-based, discussion-based, and analysis-based learning. This Article will thereby bring forth the significant changes (School and Higher Education) which has been envisaged in the Policy in order to bring the education system at par with the developed countries.

School Education: Holistic development of a child is the need of the hour and it can only be guaranteed if adequate focus is laid upon early childhood care and education (ECCE). Therefore, the policy aims to achieve universal provisioning of quality ECCE by 2030 and it stresses upon the need of physical and motor development, cognitive development, socio-emotional-ethical development among others. Further, taking into account the economic and social disparity prevalent in various district, it has been agreed that children friendly building will be provided at every Angadwadi, with significant focus on mentoring, training and continuous assessment of Angadwadi teachers, followed by expansion of midday meals and health-check-ups.

Secondly, the policy of the objective is to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy in primary school and beyond by 2025. By providing effective, sufficient infrastructure and tracking the learning level of all the students, the said policy also aims for 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio in pre-school through secondary school by 2035. Apart from the aforesaid, Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Programmes offered by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) will also be expanded to benefit those, who are not able to attend a physical school.

The prominent change which will significantly alter the system of education is that curricular and pedagogical structure of school education will be reconfigured by a 5 + 3 + 3 + 4 design, consisting of the Foundational (3 years of preschool + Grades 1-2), Preparatory (Grades 3- 5), Middle (Grades 6-8), and High school (Grades 9-12 in two phases, i.e. 9 and 10 in the first and 11 and 12 in the second), with an option of exiting at Class 10 and re-entering in the next phase. As per the said structure, Foundational Stage will consist of play/ activity-based learning, Middle Stage will see the introduction of subject for learning/discussion of abstract concepts and High School will comprise four years of multidisciplinary study with focus on depth, critical thinking, flexible and student choice. With the introduction of such significant changes, there will be no rigid division between ‘curricular’, ‘extracurricular’, or among ‘arts’, ‘humanities’, and ‘sciences’, or between ‘vocational’ or ‘academic’ streams.

Another significant change which has been incorporated is that the medium of instruction, until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother-tongue/ local language, which has to be followed by both public and private schools. Further, foreign languages will also be offered at the secondary level to learn about the cultures of the world and to increase global knowledge as per their interests and aspirations.

One of the positive aspects of the policy is that it has finally dealt with the traditional, rigid and obsolete pattern of standardized testing pattern. The Policy envisages competency-based learning and seeking testing of skilss such as analysis, critical thinking, and conceptual clarity. The ‘Boards Exam’ will now focus on testing core capacities, encourage holistic development and flexibility of choosing subjects depending on their individual interests.

The said policy also focusses on upliftment of students from SEDGs (Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups) by focusing on ‘Gender-Inclusion Fund’, which aims to build the nation’s capacity to provide quality and equitable education for all girls as well as transgender students. It also seeks to provide such students free boarding facilities in the form of hostels. The Government has also ensured that proper mechanism is set to deal with the safety and rights of the students, which involves dealing with the issue of substance, drug abuse, discrimination and harassment.

Therefore, the policy, consistently intends to focus upon the student’s area of interest, while simultaneously invigorating interest on subjects, which will play a major role in the development of the country. It also seeks to ensure that students, right from childhood, develop critical and conceptual based thinking alongwith offering them great flexibility to choose and pursue their area of interest, rather than adopting the old traditional method of choosing courses for higher education.

Higher Education: As the country is heading towards modernization, digitalization and technological development, there is a need for our country to focus on such an education pattern, which is creative, multidisciplinary and able to produce highly skilled workforce. Therefore, keeping such an objective, National Education Policy has tried to revamp the existing pattern of higher education.

Primarily, the policy intends to end the fragmentation of higher education by transforming institutions into large multidisciplinary Universities, Colleges and Higher Education Institutions (HEI), which will aim to have 3,000 or more students. It has envisioned that over a period of time, all existing and new HEIs will evolve into Research-Intensive Universities (RUs), Teaching Universities (TUs) and autonomous degree-granting colleges (ACs). Secondly, the aim of the policy is that Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education (including vocational education) increases from 26.3% (2018) to 50% by 2030.

Certain Significant changes which have been adopted in the National Education Policy includes the following, such as, intending to bring back the notion of broad based liberal arts undergraduate education, which will include scientific fields, vocational fields, professional fields and soft skills. Secondly, the undergraduate degree will be of either 3 or 4 years’ duration, with multiple exit options within this period. The 4-year programme will lead to a degree ‘with research’. Further, a student can also obtain a diploma after completing 1 year or an advanced diploma after completing 2 years of study or obtain a Bachelors degree after a 3-year programme. The 4- year Bachelor’s programme with multidisciplinary education, however, shall be the preferred option since it allows the opportunity to experience full range of holistic and multidisciplinary education with focus on the chosen major and minors as per the choice of the student. In addition to the changes undertaken in the undergraduate level, certain changes have also been incorporated in post graduate courses such as discontinuation of M.Phil. Further, conditions for PhD shall require either a Master’s degree or a 4-year Bachelor’s degree with Research. A key change which has been brought about and will lead to great exposure is permitting selected universities from top 100 to operate in India, while simultaneously promoting India as a global education destination.

The Policy promulgates on reimagining of vocational education as it aims to overcome the social status hierarchy associated with vocational education which will be integrated in the educational offerings of all secondary schools. Further, the practice of setting up stand-alone technical universities, health science universities, legal and agricultural universities, or institutions in these or other fields, shall be discouraged as all existing stand-alone institutions will have to become multidisciplinary institutions by 2030, either by opening new departments or by operating in clusters. Agricultural, Legal and Medical Education have been granted additional priority. The policy aims that legal education will be restructured to become globally competitive. It also ensures that Healthcare graduates possess (a) Medical skills, (b) Diagnostic skills, (c) Surgical skills, and (d) Emergency skills.

Considering the fact that India lags behind developed countries in terms of R&D, it has been proposed that National Research Foundation will be set up, which will competitively fund research in all disciplines and successful research will be recognized, and where relevant, implemented. Another issue which has been prevalent since time immemorial is obtaining land and space norms, endowment funds and their sources while planning to set up a University. Therefore, to remove such obstacles, it has been proposed that common regulatory regime, i.e. the National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA), will be set up to deal with such issues. Further, various Council and Framework such as General Education Council (GEC), National Higher Education Qualification Framework (NHEQF) and National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) will also be formulated to deal with the educational qualification.

It has also been noted that a common issue between the school and higher education is commercialization of education and to curb the same, all educational institutions will be audited as per standards of audit. There will be transparent public disclosure of all financial matters. A common national guidelines for all legislative Acts will be promulgated that will form private HEIs. Such Private HEI will empower the private HEIs to set the fees for their programmes independently, though within the broad applicable regulatory regime. Therefore, the Policy aims at ensuring that adequate flexibility is provided, with greater focus on multidisciplinary aspect. The said policy also aims that with such radical changes in Higher Education, India will be able to take lead in preparing professionals for cutting-edge areas that are fast gaining prominence, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3-D machining, big data analysis and machine learning among others.

The Introduced Policy is quite ambitious and if implemented in a systematic & phased manner, as proposed, it can result in drastically changing the educational system of the country. It will also reduce in outflow of students to foreign countries, which has been consistently witnessed a steep increase year by year, thereby preventing brain drain. To make the policy effective and to ensure that the students of the country work towards the upcoming field, which will aid India in becoming a global powerhouse, it is incumbent upon Central Government and State Government/UT to work together and thereby increase public expenditure in education sector.