Fortunately, after 34 years, Indian Education Ministry has taken a bold step in forming a new National Education Policy after decades on July 29 2020.
With online classes and new techniques of teaching, a new policy system is needed for the day. It was a time we went for traditional studies. We need to upgrade everything. There are many positives we can see.
This policy puts more emphasis on the creativity, innovation and personality development of the students rather than expecting them to score high and memorize content without conceptual understanding.
The policy has squashed the 10+2 system and changed it to a 5+3+3+4, i.e., 5 years of primary education, 3 years of preparatory stage, 3 years of middle stage, and 4 years of secondary school. Examinations in this system will only be held for class 5th, 8th, and 12th.
The new system has also removed the rigid distinctions between the streams that student has to pick in XI standard. According to new education policy which promotes multi-disciplinary course method, one can pick physics with psychology and arts if they so desire.
While these changes will take burden off the shoulders of the students, and might result in more kids engaging in extracurricular activities and sports, there is a part of the policy that isn’t sitting well with many, including us.
What I feel that before New Education Policy coming into picture The National Education Policy 2020 needs to be implemented properly by schools for it to be effective.
Schools will have to adopt the approach of shifting from syllabus completion to defining learning goals. Curriculum content has to be reduced in each subject to its core essentials, so that its make space for critical thinking and more holistic, inquiry-based, discovery-based, learning.
Educators must look at integrating subjects, streams and technology to create a holistic learning experience for students. Vocational courses is introduced from class VI. Coding will also be taught from class VI. Digital education and education to special needs have been given satisfactory representation in the policy. However, more needs to be done on these fronts.
As mentioned in the NEP one bagless day can be planned for the hands-on learning of the vocational subjects.
What I feel that In a bid to promote regional and local languages, English will take a back seat if this is implemented. While English is the language that was imposed on us for centuries, it give us a great comparative global advantage because it is the language that the world talks in.
It is possible to promote both things at once, but introducing learning in English directly in Class 6 will prove to be very hard on children who come from backgrounds that aren’t as privileged as those from rich and upper-caste families.
The move is also questionable because the education sector in our country is extremely underfunded. The condition of the government schools is deplorable, The policy calls for an “effort” to create high quality bilingual textbooks so students can understand concepts in both English and their regional languages, however, it does not shine light on how that would be accomplished.
While it is extremely important to preserve our own linguistic heritage, but it comes at the cost of learning Though this policy would develop 21st century skills in students. Another issue which has not been addressed properly is the critical shortage of qualified and trained teachers.
Infrastructure needs require huge sums of money. Only time will tell the commitment of the Government towards high-quality education as shown in the NEP 2020 upgrading infrastructure in public school system.
These above two factors, if not addressed, will widen the gap further between private and public schools. Thus, children from poor families will get further disadvantaged.”
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