The Government of India had announced a new National Education Policy (NEP) in July 2020. The Policy aims to bring about a paradigm shift in the education canvas of the nation. The NEP 2020 lays a great emphasis on teaching in the mother tongue in the early stages of schooling. It is believed that the children in the age group up to six-seven years have the highest capacity of assimilation of knowledge which can be very effectively achieved through teaching in the mother tongue. At higher levels of learning, the existing ‘silos’ of so many subjects are proposed to be dismantled. ‘Research’ is going to find an empathic place in the curriculum of all college-going students in the future.
CBSE to have a new mode of assessment.
Delhi University recently announced its intention to reintroduce the four-year under-graduate courses from the upcoming academic session 2021-22 as a part of the NEP 2020. The four-year programme is set to return to the DU this year with multiple exit options. Students are likely to get options to do an Honours plus research degree after completing the four-year course. It also proposes to allow students to restart their studies exactly from where they had left, in place they decide to exit. Mr Pankaj Garg, an Associate Professor at Rajdhani College, said that as per the NEP 2020 recommendations, a student collects 50-70 per cent credits by pursuing online courses from any institution other than their own college. This will completely undermine the academic quality of the university. It will eventually encourage the trend of attending online courses and decrease the workload of teachers.
Implementation of NEP 2020 in Haryana
Haryana Chief Minister has indicated that State Government would implement in toto by 2025. The Chief Minister was of the opinion for the all-round development of the children, to which his Government is committed, the utmost priority of the State Government will be improving the standard of the education which would be very well achieved by NEP 2020.
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
AICTE has taken a decision that with reference to New Education Policy 2020, a student can be eligible for an undergraduate engineering programme bypassing their class 12th board exam with any three subjects from computer science, biotechnology, agriculture, engineering graphics, business studies, entrepreneurship, physics chemistry, IT, mathematics, or biology. With these changes, students from across educational backgrounds can apply for engineering programmes. NEP 2020 aims to allow the students to choose a wide variety of subjects even if they are doing niche courses. It is because of this reason that even traditional engineering institutes like IITs have been asked to expand their non-engineering courses.
Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT)
Under the ambit of NEP 2020, the Board of Governors (BoG), the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Council, has decided to constitute four working groups to work on several issues related to the implementation of NEP 2020. These working groups will work on the areas including graded autonomy empowered and accountable BoG and Director, grooming distinguished academics for directorships of IITs, reform and restructuring of the academic senate, and innovative funding mechanism.
City colleges of Delhi are adamant that the autonomy of Delhi University should not be compromised under the new National Education Policy. Such views emerged from the constituent colleges of the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), the body that is slated to replace the University Grants Commission. The teachers suggested that BOG should also “have elected representatives from teaching and non-teaching staff along with other individuals from different walks of life”. The teachers also felt there should be “a forum above BOG where grievances of the staff and students may be addressed”.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday released a new assessment framework for science, mathematics, and English as part of their new competency-based education project. The framework is aimed at improving the existing school education system in the country for classes VI-X and the overall learning outcomes of students. In the first phase, selected Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas, UT Chandigarh, and private schools across the country will participate in the programme, which will be rolled out to all 25,000 CBSE schools in India by 2024. The new assessment framework has been launched in association with British Council. “The CBSE has collaborated with British Council and three UK agencies— Cambridge, NARIC and Alphaplus—which are helping us in attaining our objectives. The new framework aims to replace the existing rote learning model,” said a CBSE official.
The Euro School
The Euro School has taken the lead to implement the NEP in letter and spirit. The content framework of the Euro School, a new curriculum, is based on the 7E instruction design principle- engage, explain, elaborate, explore, evaluate, extend, and experience.