Context: After 3 years of India’s innovative education policy “National Education Policy 2020”, an assessment is desired.
About National Education Policy 2020
- National Education Policy 2020 is the education policy of the 21st century that envisions a massive transformation in education through the 5 foundational pillars: Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability.
- The National Education Policy 2020 was proposed by a committee headed under Dr. K Kasturirangan.
- The National Education Policy 2020 proposes various reforms including reforms in school and higher education, technical education, vocational education and global standards that are suited to 21st-century needs.
- It is aimed at making India into a vibrant knowledge society and global knowledge superpower.
National Education Policy 2020: Objectives
- Fostering a holistic education: A holistic and multidisciplinary education would develop intellectual, social, physical, emotional, and moral capacities of human beings
- Providing quality education to all: Enable an individual to study one or more specialized areas of interest at a deep level, and also develop character, ethics and moral values.
- Higher Education: Increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education to 50% by 2035.
- Internationalization: Improve the numbers of international students studying in India, and provide greater mobility to students in India to study or carry out research at institutions.
- Funding: Increase the public funding for education to 6% of GDP by 2030.
- Vocational Learning: Provide at least 50% of learners exposure to vocational education by 2025 through school and higher education system.
- Holistic Education:
- Various initiatives like DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) as and National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) provide a integrated platform for holistic education.
- National Assessment Centre and PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) aims to improve the standards of education through quality student assessment.
- Quality Education:
- Literacy: National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat)
- QUality Schools: Initiatives like PM SHRI (PM Schools for Rising India) for upgradation of schools have been implemented in about 6,500 schools.
- Teacher Training: NISHTHA (National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement) 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 is an Integrated Teacher Training Programme for different stages of school education.
- Higher Education:
- Learner Centric Education: National Credit Framework (NCrF), National Higher Education Qualification Framework and Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) with multiple entry/exit have been introduced.
- Status: So far 1667 Universities/INIs/HEIs are onboarded on ABC portal & 2.75 Crore students are registered.
- Equity: Many professional courses are being offered in Indian Languages and entrance exams such as JEE, NEET, CUET are conducted in 13 Indian languages
- Internationalization:
- Policy Action: Framed regulation on setting up and operation of campuses of foreign Higher Education Institutions in India.
- MOUs have been signed for setting up of the campus of IIT Madras in Zanzibar- Tanzania and IIT Delhi in Abu Dhabi.
- Vocational Learning:
- Scheme: ‘Samagra Shiksha’ scheme aims at integrating Vocational Education with general academic education.
- Framed National Council for Vocational Education & Training (NCVET), a framework to enable vocational education in the education.
- For Class XI and XII, vocational courses are being offered as compulsory (elective) subjects.
- Funding:
- According to Economic Survey 2022-23, total education outlay, (Centre & State), added up to 2.9 per cent of the country’s 2022 GDP.
- The funding has remained constant at 2.9 percent of the GDP for the last four years.
Continue Reading: National Education Policy NEP 2020, Comprehensive Guide
Source: PIB