Author - Tanya Pandey , Faculty of Law , Aligarh Muslim University , Aligarh .
Abstract :
It has been unquestionably said that Education is that weapon, which one can use to change the world; Education is that key which can open all entryways for an individual and land him/her into a paradise of infinite chances. And furthermore Education is something which at a minuscule level can change an individual and furthermore at the full scale level if triaged 'above different worries as supporting military or other the same portfolios can lead a country over the way of reliable Development or basic advancement in various domains inside and out. In any case, in the event that one obviously examines the microscopic aspect of the spending plan designated to the Education Sector, at that point one would have the option to acknowledge plainly, that 'Education' remains a misjudged jewel in India. Despite the fact that a few times in many years, endeavors have been made to acquire some huge changes the Education Sector, yet scarcely has any Education Policy uptil now had the option to address properly all the essential worries in the domain of Education .So it was pretty normal to observe the buzz getting made revolved around the much anticipated National Education Policy 2020,which has been in progress since 2015, and in May 2016, the Committee for Evolution of the New Education Policy presented its report, in view of which the then MHRD arranged 'A few Inputs for the Draft National Education Policy, 2016'.
In the end, in June 2017, the Committee for the Draft National Education Policy was established under the chairmanship of Dr. K Kasturirangan, previous head of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which presented the Draft National Education Policy 2019 to Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal on 31 May 2019, after he assumed responsibility for the service. The draft had purportedly before been submitted in December 2018 also.
As per the legislature, the NEP 2020 has been detailed in the wake of having considered almost more than 2 lakh proposals from 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats, 6,600 squares, 6,000 ULBs and 676 locale. The approach report says that it - targets delivering connected with, gainful, and contributing residents for building an evenhanded, comprehensive, and plural society'1 , consequently normally lighting large number of expectations and furthermore shining the essential worries of individuals identifying with the strategy as in what precisely has the arrangement enstored for them, etc.
Keywords-
Right to Education, Continuous Professional Development Course, LokVidya
INTRODUCTION:
If one undertakes a clear perusal of the National Education Policy 2020, then one's definitely going to find out various positive proponents in the policy which if implemented in all it's glory, can surely lead to a transformative restructuring of the entire Education System substantially. To begin with one of the most significant proponents of the policy is the '5+3+3+4' pattern , in which unlike the earlier education policy which brought the students from the age of 6-18 years under the ambit of the Right to Education , the new NEP 2020, bypasses this particular thing by bringing the children from the age of 3 till 18 under the ambit of Right to Education, thereby bringing the country a step closer to the much ambitious target of increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio from the 26.3% rate which existed in 2018 to an anticipated rate of 50% by 2035; and the structure when broken up into consistent grades will appear as such:
'Three years of anganwadi or preschool + two years in primary school in grades 1-2 covering ages 3 to 8 years
The ‘preparatory stage’ covering ages 8 to 11 years or grades 3-5
The ‘middle stage’ covering ages 11 to 14 years or grades 6-8
The ‘secondary stage’ covering ages 14 to 18 years in two phases – grades 9-10 in the first and grades 11-12 in the second'2
REFORMS THROUGH THE NEW POLICY:
Furthermore, NEP 2020 , also tends to reduce the curriculum content , only including the necessary essentials , focussing on core ideas , and doing away with the ones merely based on rot learning , with greater emphasis on bolstering the child's analytical and logical faculties.
Then, one of the most appreciable and welcome steps have been the Flexibility in Stream Selection , i.e. now a child can just select from the array of subjects available at his/ her disposal,unlike the persistent clic`hed and ever constant streams of Science, Commerce and Arts, i.e. now one can just go on to select the subjects of his/her interest accordingly without any sort of field restraint, this 'ld help in doing away with the insularity that existed in the stream selection, often bounding the children within certain limits and hence hampering them to go beyond the fixed scope and range available to explore their true talents, strengths and interests .Then another significant pointer proposed has been in the field of assessment criteria, i.e. standardised school exams to be taken in grades 3,5,8 to do away with just a single analysis done at the end of the year and to constantly and regularly track child 's progress and enhancement, not just on the basis of academics but also extra-curricular and other moral and character based evaluation to focus on developing a child holistically; also providing for the conduction of the Board Exams twice a year so that a student who wanted to improve his/her performance can go on to give the second time examinations. Further the NEP 2020 also emphasises on Multilingualism providing for a three - language pattern to be adopted in which a child's trained in three languages of which one would be his/ her regional or mother tongue, another would be English and simultaneously giving equal emphasis on the third language which has to be Sanskrit-which has to offered at all levels of school and higher education, as described it's an attempt to educate children in one of the ancient and greatly revered language of instruction ( esp. for the people of the Sanatan Dharma) , but critics to this particular contention have alleged it to be a step in furtherance of the saffronisation of the country.
Also it has been suggested that the medium of instruction in schools uptill grade 5 should be in their local, regional or mother tongue to consolidate their understanding of their basic concepts however in this age of Globalization where English long back had been selected as the other official language of the country India owing to its indispensable relevance only, how far 'll this step serve the purpose of equipping the child equally in the realm of proficiency of English to simplify his/ her further career prospects and global outreach, is a bit sceptical and hence rightly not been provided for I believe, as a mandatory step and has been left at the discretion of the State Governments to implement it or not .Not only that the NEP 2020 , also emphasizes on enhancing and polishing the skills of the teachers by providing for a scholarship for the 4-year B.Ed .Programme and also consolidating the Teaching Eligibility Test( TET) of the teachers by improving the questions asked in the test and enhancing the approach of the exam in a way to appropriately check the teacher's aptitude of the subjects , furthermore to consistently work on enhancing their skills, the NEP 2020 also makes a 50 hour long Continuous Professional Development (CPD) COURSE, a requisite for the teachers to continuously enrich them with relevant skills relevant to the contemporary scenario.
And also one of the significant proponents of the NEP 2020 is that The Undergraduate Courses would be of 3 and 4 years respectively, a 4- year programme would help in enhancing and enabling a person in the Research field , thereby there's a scope of the Post Graduate course to lose that crucial place that it used to possess earlier, and also multiple exit options have also been provided for via this policy , through which multiple certifications would be provided to the person on the basis of the credits gained by him/her via the UG Programme ,which would obviously be different for the ones dropping out after the First Year, Second Year, Third Year and so on.
And furthermore there's also this idea of a single regulating body to replace the existing Regulatory bodies, which is going to be the National Higher Education Regulatory Council, which will be regulating different realms of Education apart from the medical and legal streams.
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS:
At the same time there were issues drawing up the anxiety and scepticism of the mass too, like the subject of Education lies in the Concurrent list and when laws should rather be made on topics and subjects under the concurrent list, it is first put up as a draft for a threshold period. The concerned duration of the threshold period is to boost up suggesting abilities and discourse from the states or eminent and prolific individuals or the ‘Shining Stars’ from the respective field of the draft bill. Education is listed as a concurrent subject. However, the NEP 2020 was bypassed in the parliament, thereby violating the above code of conduct; and also that there's no mention of hiw the regulation of Coaching institutes as well as other Vocational Training Sectors would be done which also form a part of the Education Sector and also not getting covered under the regulation of the only regulatory body , that's to regulate all other Educational Institutes and so on; furthermore as there would be as proposed only one regulatory body , but it's Constitution hasn't been stated of whom exactly will it comprise of, then other concern of some 's that the introduction of the knowledge in the vocational sector at an early stage can basically divert the person from the mainstream knowledge and the knowledge which is more important or indispensable to the development or consolidation of the practical and crucial skills in one's life and then also the proposal of the education being imparted in one's mother tongue , or local language uptill class 5 hasn't gone well with many as, living in a globalised and interconnected world where one cannot do away with the importance of one 's mother tongue , simultaneously and more importantly one cannot do away with the importance of English Language in the present context and hence I believe rightly the ' abovementioned thing hasn't been provided for, as for the mandatory implementation and so on.
So far as the New Education Policy 2020 is concerned, it's definitely a progressive step taken forward in the realm of bolstering the Education System of India, with various positives lying inherent in the policy if appropriately implemented and executed. For Instance: target of achieving 50% of the Gross Enrolment Ratio in the higher education by the year 2035, or the concept of doing away with the insularity that existed in the choice of the fields, a student opted for in the Senior Secondary School which were just fixed at those static and Clichéd streams, hampering a child to move beyond the set boundaries and go on to explore his/ her true potentials, skills and calibre and develop the practical and the theoretical insights in the subjects of his/ her choice in the most efficient manner; then the much needed step in doing away with the stigma and fear that has been attached with the board exams and their level of difficulty by making them easier and also shifting their locus of focus not on testing a person's rot learning rather than on assessing one's core competencies and practical insights in the field of study; then also one of the quite distinct features of the policy which one comes across is the incorporation of the " Lok Vidya "- in which a person would be educated in the field of the country's culture that has persisted and has inspired nations for ages, in which knowledge related with the art and craft , monuments, scriptures as well as the cultural heritage would be imparted to the people so as to make them aware 'bout their Culture and Tradition , thereby instilling a feeling of self- pride with regard to the admirable practices persisting therein and also to draw a more clear and capable analogy while comparing one's culture with the other nations' , which is only possible when one' s aware about not just the pros but also the cons of a particular thing and thereby can rightly analyse and scrutinise and draw a conclusion about the faults and plus proponents of a particular thing and not just that can even look for making his/ her career in that particular field owing the opportunity of getting to know more ' bout it and also to analyse for oneself if one holds the interest in that particular thing or not and such more. At the same time there were issues drawing up the anxiety and scepticism of the mass too, as there would be as proposed only one regulatory body , but it's Constitution hasn't been stated of whom exactly will it comprise of, then other concern of some 's that the introduction of the knowledge in the vocational sector at an early stage can basically divert the person from the mainstream knowledge and the knowledge which is more important or indispensable to the development or consolidation of the practical and crucial skills in one's life and then also the proposal of the education being imparted in one's mother tongue , or local language uptil class 5 hasn't gone well with many as, living in a globalised and interconnected world where one cannot do away with the importance of one 's mother tongue , simultaneously and more importantly one cannot do away with the importance of English Language in the present context and hence I believe rightly the ' abovementioned thing hasn't been provided for, as for the mandatory implementation and so on. But largely the policy seems to showcase light at the end of the way only and only if it's proper implementation and execution is taken into consideration with utmost sincerity and diligence.
CONCLUSION:
Education ,being one of the things of greatest indispensability should be given the needed priority and significance it deserves because ultimately it's Education that can not just take an individual but also the nation to great heights and hence the need to constantly look forward to revision and improvisation of the National Education Policy is a step in this particular regard, and so a step forward in that particular regard is definitely a welcome one provided that it's implementation is looked after in the most significant manner and diligent steps are taken for making it a complete success .As Education and Health are two such underrated sectors of India’s Economy which if prioritised can bring 'bout substantive developments in the entire economy as a whole. In the end it can be said ,Ignorance is the mother of miseries be it economic, social, political and such more, it is only an educated mind which can appreciate a particular concern by applying it’s analytical and logical reasoning and can thereby scrutinise the pros and cons of a particular problem and is successfully able to reach an inference keeping aside the social, political , religious prejudices and evaluate for oneself what’s truly efficient and necessary and what not, and hence it’s Education only which can ultimately exacerbate one’s standard of living, one's stature of analysing things, his/her political literacy, then his /her stature in the society ,as well as the contentment and happiness levels of an individual ultimately leading the country to the apex of an idealistic stage of progress and development .And so it'll really be a paradox if still ,despite education being able to facilitate an utopian life to a great extent doesn’t find preference for the country’s government ,over the accumulation of Nuclear weapons and a mad-armament race going on across the world and the concerns for urbanising the entire country’s infrastructure except the ultimate requisite that’s behind all sorts of developments – which is human mind and which can only be nourished via the nutrients of an efficient system of Education existing in place.
References :
1. Roy Shreyashi, ' The National Education Policy 2020 and the Reforms it brings', ( 2020, August 1), Retrieved from - SOURCE
2. Matthew, Naina Elizabeth, ' A deeper look at India ' s New Education Policy',(2020, August 13), Retrieved from - SOURCE
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