The
Education Policy of India was dated to medieval times and it was not doing any
good to students. Students were just passing from schools and colleges, and
after that, they were just confused and had no idea what to do with their
lives. The schools and colleges were just making clones of students like in a
robot factory. Schools and Colleges were focused on one and one thing only and
that is to impart the education from the books and the harsh truth is that they
never even cared where the real talent of a student lies. Don’t presume it was
their fault; it was the fault of the society and the fault of the Education
policy of India.
Even
during the age of the Mahabharat, the teachers were mainly focused on improving
the quality and talents of their students and also providing the required
education but in the current times, talent had no scope in colleges or schools.
Students were no more getting degrees
but instead given certificates of participation for taking part in a program.
Think of an Electrical Engineer who doesn’t even know how to handle the wiring
of any electrical appliance.
There
was a dire need to change the above to save the country’s future and Mr Narendra
Modi, Prime Minister of India made a panel of experts led by the ISRO (Indian Space
Research Organization) chief Mr K Kasturirangan to evaluate and come up with a
better Education Policy. On 1st May, Mr Modi reviewed the New Education Policy
2020 drafted by the experts. On 29th July 2020, the Union Cabinet
approved the policy. The main aim of this Education policy of 2020 will be to
make “India a global knowledge superpower”.
The
key highlights related to the new education policy of India in 2020 are as
follows: -
The
old 10+2 system will be replaced with a 5+3+3+4 structure.
No
more rigid division of streams.
The curriculum will be getting a new makeover.
Use
of technology extensively for teaching.
360
Degree holistic Report cards.
Introduction
to vocational education.
A single regulator for higher education.
University
courses to have majors and minors.
Investments
in Education raised from 1.7% to 6%.
NCC
wings for schools.
Minimum
qualification for teaching increased.
New
provisions for disabled students.
Nutrition
and health cards, regular health checkups for school students.
Common
Entrance Test.
National
Research Foundation (NRF) to be established.
Coding
to be taught from Class sixth.
The
Education Policy of India was released in 1986 and it took over 30 years to
reconsider and more importantly change it. The old policy was solely focusing
on providing education to the students, whatever your parents decided for you,
you got to follow the plan without questioning your own abilities. That is the
reason why India has so many Engineers and around 70% of them doesn’t even fit
to be called Engineer because they even lack the basic knowledge required to be
an Engineer.
However,
the new National Education Policy of Government of India has the potential to
give the proper direction to the students so that they can identify their true
talent and strength and focus solely on that. To understand more about the New
Education Policy of India 2020, let’s discuss every aspect of it and how it
will affect the students.
What
it means is that now there will be 4 stages to a school student’s life.
The
first 5 years will be the foundation stage which will be up to class 2. The students
below age 5 will be directed to Preparatory classes or “Balavatika” which will
have an ECCE (Early childhood care and education) qualified teacher. The old
Policy was never focused on the children of the age group of 3-6 as class 1st
began at the age of 6 but with the introduction of this Balavatika, children
will no more have to move from playschools to primary schools.
The
next stage will be 3 Years of the preparatory stage from 3 to 5 classes. In
this stage, the student will be prepared for the further classes and the
development of key skills and their interests will take place here.
After
that, the third stage will begin, 3 years from 6 to 8 classes. To prepare the
students for future endeavours, the government has taken a very vital and
important step which is to start coding teaching from class 6th.
Bag-less days will be provided to the students to promote vocational learning
and enrichment activities involving arts, quizzes, and sports.
Then
the last and the most important stage, the 4 years of the secondary stage from
9th to 12th classes. In the older policy, the students
were only focused to prepare for the board exams during this stage but not with
the new policy. The new policy will reduce the importance and stress of the Board
exams, the exams will be conducted twice a year and with two parts; Objective
and descriptive. This is great news for the students as it will only promote
knowledge application more than the rote learning which is dictating the
society in the current times.
The medium of instruction until grade 5 will be home language/mother-tongue/local
language or regional language which will not burden the students to learn
English. In the first three stages, i.e from starting to 8th grade,
exams will only be held for classes 3, 5, and 8 so the young students are not
burdened with the pressure of exams and are solely focused on improving their
key skills and talents.
Three
languages which are needed to be learned by the students will be the choices of
states, regions and of students, as long as two out of three languages are
Native-Indian languages.
After
the 10th class, students have to choose between the Science,
commerce or Arts stream and if one makes a mistake at that time, they will have
to suffer their whole lives but it will not happen anymore as the new policy
will allow students to choose whatever subjects they want to study. If a student wishes to learn and study Business studies with Physics and physical
education as the other subjects, nobody will stop them. They can now study any
subject they want.
The
curriculum related to the student studies will be reduced by removing
unnecessary topics and it will be more directed towards the present times and
standards.
The
use of technology will be increased in student learning. A dedicated wing will
be created solely focusing to look after the E-education needs of both schools
and higher education so that the epidemics and pandemics can’t affect the
education of the students. Tech-based options such as Online courses, e-books,
apps, satellite-based TV channels, adult education centres will be developed
which will allow students to study from home whenever they can’t reach their
institutes.
One
of the most beautiful aspects of the New Education policy of 2020. Now, your
parents will not compare you to "Sharma Ji ka lakda", as the report cards will
not only be about your marks, it will focus on other important aspects of
learning like skills. The students who are not good and considered as a week
student might turn out to be the brightest in their skills and hence their
parents will support them and not beat them for their academics.
The
government is planning to achieve at least 50% of vocational learners by 2025.
It basically means that students will be exposed to an internship during the
schooling days and will be mentored by experts in their respective fields.
Every student will have to learn one vocation and will be exposed to several
others. The subjects will be carpentry, electrical work, metalwork, gardening
and many more of the same kind which will be decided by the states and local
communities. This will surely make the next generation “aatmnirbhar”. They will no more have to wait for jobs if
any recession comes, they can just start their own business or better every
student will provide something to the community.
There
are three regulatory heads of education (CBSE, NCERT, and NCTE) in India in the
current times but now they will all be replaced by one and only body that will
be known as Higher Education Council of India (HECI).
Any
student at the university level will now be able to choose a major subject like
engineering and minor subjects like music, dance, fashion designing etc and
learn those from professionals which will allow them to follow their dreams
while studying the subject they opt for.
This
has been the demand of the hour for a long time. Students have been asking for
a common entrance for the admissions in the college. NTA (National Testing
Agency) will conduct university entrance exams twice a year which will include
one common aptitude for all and then a specialized subject exam in the
different subjects.
According
to the new policy, every student will be issued a health and nutrition cards
which will address the health meals and check-ups provided to students.
As
we have already discussed the key highlights on the new policy, a few things
got left behind. These things might not affect you but these are also very
important in the making of India as the next Knowledge superpower. Let’s
discuss these remaining things.
The government will be helping and encouraging high performing Indian Universities
to set up campuses in other countries and several top Universities from around
the world will be facilitated by the government to set-up their campuses in
India. It will bring more opportunities to the students. The investment in the Education
sector has been increased from 1.7% to 6% of the total GDP. It will bring a lot
of difference to everybody in the educational sector.
In
addition to that, the government is keen to establish a National Research
Foundation (NRF), the main aim of NRF will be to enable a culture of research
through universities. It will be governed by the best researchers and
innovators in their fields. Definitely one of the coolest decisions that will
provide students with new objectives and encourage them to come up with new
ideas. A 4-year integrated B.Ed degree will be mandatory for the teachers to
teach in any primary school. It will definitely increase the standard of
teachers and better teachers will lead to better students.
The government also planned to help the college dropouts who left their education
due to various reasons, now colleges and universities will provide multiple
exit and entry, credit storage and credit transfer facilities. You know what
that means; if a person leaves the college after the first or second year due
to any reason, and after a few years if they decide to complete their
education, guess what they don’t have to start from the beginning. Their
credits from the years they studied will be stored and then they can begin
right from where they dropped out. Amazing isn’t it? Your efforts will not be
wasted anymore. National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS) will be developing
high-quality Indian Sign language. There will be a free boarding facility for the
students belonging to socio-economy disadvantaged backgrounds at schools.
After
seeing all of this you will be wondering which section government forgot to
mention in this policy. Yeah, you are right, it is us the ones who are already
graduated. Adults and the students who are already graduated will definitely be
cursing the Government and will always envy the students who get to study with
the new Education Policy of 2020 because this policy has everything we have
ever wanted from the best teachers to the best tests and moreover government
will also be able to govern the private schools who used to do their deeds
without any restrictions so far. The next generation of students will always
pity us when we get to tell them that how the education system in our times
sucks and how we were not able to become NASA scientists due to the education
system. Okay, that was out of line but that’s what we learned from our parents
how to hype up your efforts.
Anyway,
this is for the betterment of the country and the students who will be the
future of our country so we should support it as better schools, better
teachers, better syllabus and new ways to learn, that’s a win-win situation for
students, teachers, parents and everybody else concerned. Although, it may be
bad for your relatives who will not get the chance to brag about your grades
anymore.
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