Top Features of New Education Policy (NEP) 2020

All you need to know about NEP 2020: In 2015, India adopted the United Nation’s global education development for Sustainable Development (SDG4) goal 4 of the 2030 agenda under which it seeks to..

“ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all – by 2030

For such a majestic goal to be successful, it is mandatory to revive and re-configured the Indian education system in order to meet the critical targets and goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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New Education Policy (NEP 2020)

In India, the national education policy is the 1st education policy of the 21st Century.

This Policy proposes the revision and revamping of all aspects of the education structure (10+2), including its regulation and governance, to create a new system that is aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st-century education, while keeping India’s traditions and value systems intact.

The key principle of the new education policy is that..

education must develop cognitive capacities like critical thinking and problem-solving attitude– but also social, ethical, and emotional capacities and dispositions.

NEP 2020

The new education policy is not only meant for students and how they learn with a new approach but will also help re-establish teachers, at all levels. The national education policy must also help to recruit the best and brightest teachers to enter the teaching professions.

NEP 2020 Structure (5+3+3+4)

The new national education policy will modify and upgrade the old academic structure of 10+2 in school education. A new pedagogical and curricular restructure of 5+3+3+4 covering ages 3-18 will replace the old academic structure.

In the current 10+2 academic structure children of the age group of 3-6 are not covered as Class 1 begins at age 6. In the new 5+3+3+4 structure, a strong base of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) from age 3 is also included. The aim and objective of this new academic structure is to promote better overall learning, development, and well-being from an early age.

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The pre-primary education of 2 years will be for children from 3 to 6 years old. The aim of this 2-year pre-primary schooling is to prepare the children for Primary education.

During 2 years of pre-primary education, children will be taught in Anganwadi or community-based nursery schools free of charge. The aim of introducing this is to give more emphasis on the early years of education and to lay a strong learning foundation amongst the children.

From three to six years of age, children will be engaged in activities that will help them in learning and understanding by means of playing games, fun activities etc. This will bring children of age 3-6 under the school curriculum. More efforts will be made to make early-stage learning in a joyful, playful and fun-loving environment.

The new 5+3+3+4 curricular structure will cover the students from the ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively. The new system will include 3 years of pre-schooling/Anganwadi and then thereafter 12 years of schooling.

New Curricular and Pedagogical Structure

With an emphasis on Early Childhood Care and Education, NCERT will develop a National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education known as NCPFECCE. This will cover the children up to the age of 8. Early Childhood Care and Education will be delivered through an extensive network of institutions like Anganwadi’s and pre-schools. The teachers and Anganwadi workers will be trained as per the ECCE pedagogy and curriculum.

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The National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECCE) will be developed by NCERT and it will be implemented jointly by the Ministries of HRD, Women and Child Development (WCD), Health and Family Welfare (HFW), and Tribal Affairs.

Achieving Foundational Literacy and Numeracy

Foundational Literacy and Numeracy is a mandatory prerequisite to learning and development. The states will prepare an implementation plan to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy in all primary schools for all learners by grade 3 by 2025.

Major Reforms in School Curriculum & Pedagogy

The new school curriculum will be designed with the aim for the holistic development of learners which includes equipping them with 21st-century skills, more emphasis will be given on critical thinking and experimental learning.

Students will be provided with flexibility in choosing subjects of their interest. Any important modification in the curriculum is there will be no rigid separation between arts and sciences, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities and vocational and academic streams.

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School Governance

The schools should be organised into complexes or clusters as an institution of learning and all-around development of children. School should be a place where students can learn life skills, develop basic etiquette, and grow as responsible human beings. Schools should possess the basic facilities and resources like infrastructure, libraries and a professional teaching community.

Principles of New Education policy 2020

The new education policy is based on a certain set of principles that will help the youth of india to get a world-class, high-quality education system. The purpose of this new education policy is not limited to educating the masses but to make them a responsible human beings.

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• The core objectives of the new education system are to develop good character among the individuals and to be a good human being that contributes to the society. One of the key objectives of education is to develop rational thought and action, having compassion and empathy, creative imagination and ethical values.
• The new education focuses on the unique capabilities of each student. It helps in recognizing, identifying & nurturing the qualities one each student with the help of parents and teachers for all-around development in academic & non-academic areas of life.
• The priority is given to foundational literacy and Numeracy to the students. The new education aims to achieve this in all students by Grade 3.
• There is no Science, Arts & Commerce etc stream. The new education policy is to provide flexibility in choosing their programmes and subjects. This will help students to choose their own paths according to their talents and interests.
• Equal priorities will be given to different areas of learning with no hard separations between arts and sciences. Curricular and extracurricular activities and vocational and academic streams will be treated as more or less the same.
• For this multidisciplinary world, a multidisciplinary and holistic education will be implemented across sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, and sports fields.
• More emphasis will be given to the conceptual understanding of the subject rather than learning for the exams.
• Students will be made to think creative and critical thinking will be encouraged.
• The new national education policy will teach and instil human ethics and constitutional values like empathy, responsibility, cleanliness, respect for others, respect for public property, scientific temper, equality etc.

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• The new education policy will play a key role in promoting multilingualism, Local Indian langugaes and the power of language in teaching and learning.
• Communication skills, cooperation, and teamwork are by far the most important and basic life skills required in every phase of life, the new education curriculum will be designed to incorporate these skills from a very young age.
• The policy focuses on regular formative assessment for learning rather than the summative assessment that encourages today’s ‘coaching culture’.
• Technology is the future of education, hence the extensive use of technology in teaching, learning & assessment will help students, teachers and parents.
• The education system is designed to ensure full equity and inclusion of all educational decisions so that all students are able to thrive right from early childhood care to school education and to higher education.
• Teachers and faculty members are the backbones of the education system. Rigorous efforts will be carried out in their recruitment, continuous professional development, positive working environments and service conditions.
• A rootedness and pride in India, and its rich, diverse, ancient and modern culture and knowledge systems and traditions.

The vision of the New Education Policy 2020

The national education policy has the vision to provide an education system to the youth that sustainably transforms the country into a vibrant knowledge society by providing high-quality education to all, with the objective to make India a global knowledge superpower.

Apart from the universal high-quality education, the policy aims at instilling fundamental responsibilities, constitutional values, and bonding with one’s own country i.e. a deep-rooted pride in being Indian. This will be achieved with a curriculum and pedagogy framework that will be directed by the policy to our educational institutions.

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Reduce curriculum content to enhance essential learning and critical thinking

Curriculum content will be reduced in each subject to its core essentials, to make space for critical thinking and more holistic, inquiry-based, discovery-based, discussion-based, and analysis-based learning.

Teaching and learning will be conducted in a more interactive manner; questions will be encouraged, and classroom sessions will regularly contain more fun, creative, collaborative, and exploratory activities for students for deeper and more experiential learning.

Empower students through flexibility in course choices

Students will be given increased flexibility and choice of subjects to study, particularly in secondary school – including subjects in physical education, the arts and crafts, and vocational skills – so that they can design their own paths of study and life plans. Holistic development and a wide choice of subjects and courses year to year will be the new distinguishing feature of secondary school education.

There will be no hard separation among ‘curricular’, ‘extracurricular’, or ‘co-curricular’, among ‘arts’, ‘humanities’, and ‘sciences’, or between ‘vocational’ or ‘academic’ streams. Subjects such as physical education, the arts and crafts, and vocational skills, in addition to science, humanities, and mathematics, will be incorporated throughout the school curriculum, with a consideration for what is interesting and safe at each age.

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Multilingualism and the Power of language

It is understood worldwide that young children learn and grasp concepts more quickly in their mother tongue or home language. The new education policy will promote the medium of instruction in home language/mother-tongue or local language until Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond.

The support for Multilingualism will be encouraged as in many Indian families multiple languages are spoken, there can be a home language spoken by other family members which may sometimes be different from the mother tongue or local language.

NEP 2020 Implementation Date

The New education policy is being implemented across the country in a planned & phased manner. To review the implementation of the new national education policy (NEP 2020) Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a key meeting on 9th May 2022.

The meeting was held to review the implementation of the new national education policy and to discuss the roadmap and future implementation plans. PM Modi presided over the meeting with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, other senior ministers and the officials from the education ministry, NCERT and UGC.

key goal of NEP 2020 is to bring equity, inclusivity and quality in the education sector.

PM Narendra Modi

In the meeting, PM Modi directed the officials and ministers to prepare a detailed plan for the implementation of other key projects and initiatives to achieve the target.

Highlights of New Education Policy

The new National Education Policy was approved by the union cabinet on 29 July 2020. This is India’s biggest educational reform after 34 years. The newly launched education policy will be replacing the National Education Policy of India, 1986, in a planned and phased manner.

The vision of the new education policy is to provide high-quality universal education to the students of all sections of society, thus transforming the Indian education system by 2040. The national education policy (NEP 2020) will bring around 2 crore, out-of-school children, back into the mainstream and have common standards of learning in public & private schools.

In order to become a global superpower of knowledge, this is the biggest and much talked about the initiative of the government of India, the vision of this new education policy is to provide an education system that sustainably transforms the country into a vibrant knowledge society by providing high-quality education to all.

A new pedagogical and curricular restructure of 5+3+3+4 covering ages 3-18 will replace the old academic structure of 10+2. The new academic structure will include 3 years of pre-schooling/Anganwadi and then thereafter 12 years of schooling.

A National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education is being developed which will cover the children up to the age of 8. The mandatory pre-primary education will be provided by a significantly expanded and strengthened system of Anganwadi’s or pre-schools located across the country.

One of the key goals of the new Education Policy (NEP 2020) is to attain foundational literacy and numeracy in all primary schools for all learners by grade 3 by 2025. The policy also aims at attaining 100% GER in Pre-School to Secondary Level by 2030.

Curriculum content will be reduced in each subject to its core essentials, and more emphasis will be given to critical thinking and more holistic learning which will be inquiry-based, discovery-based, discussion-based, and analysis-based learning.

Students will be given increased flexibility and choice of subjects to study. Students will be able to choose a group of subjects from different fields of study, a group could have subjects from Science and Humanities or Commerce and Humanities etc. Vocational and extracurricular activities will be promoted and students will be encouraged to participate in these co-curricular activities.

New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3% (2018) to 50% by 2035. 3.5 Crore new seats will be added to Higher education institutions.

As per the new education policy the UG education can be of 3 or 4 years with multiple exit options and appropriate certification within this period. For example, Certificate after 1 year, Advanced Diploma after 2 years, Bachelor’s Degree after 3 years and Bachelor’s with Research after 4 years.

Technology in education will be adopted heavily to bring world-class education to the youth, for this the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) an An autonomous body will be created to provide a rich platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, administration.

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