NEP 2020
mooted to consider reforms in the school curriculum, changes in education
funding, language of instruction, the potential (re)growth of academically
selected schooling, increased investment in early childhood education, formative
assessment, constructivist approach to learning,
envisaged flexibility in
Higher Education curriculum, multiple entry/exit, Academic Bank of Credits,
unified governance
and the increased
focus on gathering and disseminating robust evidence on “what works” in educational
attainment. Many of these changes seem unlikely to hold the wish of reducing
attainment gaps, in improving the retention and aptitude for innovation and
sustainability.
Education lies at the heart of any
sustainable development and is the fundamental medium through which this
development is imagined and implemented. Education impacts stakeholders at the
individual, local, regional, national and global levels, however it is most
difficult to legislate, ratify, implement and manage change education paradigm.
The challenge does not lie in the promotion and implementation of the key
education strategies but in securing investment, interest and motivation to
implement what is envisaged in NEP2020.
NEP 2020 aims to transform
India into a vibrant knowledge society and a global knowledge superpower by
making both school and college education more holistic, flexible, and
multidisciplinary suited to the twenty-first century needs that will engender
unique capabilities of each student. Thus building a Nation that is sustainable
in every sense.
NEP 2020 visualizes
universal access to school education at all levels pre-school to secondary,
reducing drop-out by creating a system to track the ongoing progress and by
giving options to pursue their choice dream not limited to a stream of thinking.
The active involvement of social workers can help in befitting the demographic
dividend. Reforms in school curricula and pedagogy aims at the holistic
development of learners by equipping them with the key twenty-first
century skills, and the proposed reduction in
curricular content is intended to
enhance essential learning and critical thinking.
NEP 2020 has adopted a constructivist
approach in the post digital era yet considers experiential learning. The
increased flexibility and the choice of subjects should benefit students in harnessing
their inborn competency and capability by pursing their dream. The curricular,
extra-curricular activities, and vocational training coupled with internship is
a welcome change. The NEP 2020 grapples without clarity the issue of Multilanguage
formula, classical languages, sign language and foreign languages. Language is
a major challenge and an opportunity, especially when we have children from a
multi-heritage backgrounds.
The visualized shift to
formative assessment based on competency, learning and development, taking into
consideration critical thinking and conceptual clarity is a right move. PARAKH
(Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic
Development) the National Assessment Centre is a dream that needs deeper study,
given the geographical and demographic variability.
The recruitment and career
path of the teachers envisaged in NEP is the need of the hour. We need to tap
and nurture the best talents in teaching, both at school and in higher
education. This will require attractive salary package and perks. The
motivation and passion required in a teacher may be maintained by opening a
career path, yet given the current economic scenario one will wonder how this
will actually happen.
NEP 2020 envisages clear,
separate systems for policy making, regulation, operations and academic
matters. It also proposes the School Quality Assessment and Accreditation
Framework (SQAAF). It may be a challenge to implement these accreditation,
given the current geographical, linguistic, ethnic and political nexus. The
concept of Holistic Multidisciplinary Education, Academic Bank of Credit and combined
higher education agency can take our higher education forward.
Nationalism may explicitly
or tacitly imply the deserved right of differential successes. Nevertheless an
inhibitor to success may be natural of opportunity in communities as well as
schools. This opportunity is exacerbated by the increased and hardened
political divisions emerging within countries across the world. On a larger
scale, the emergence of nationalism as a reaction to perceived or manufactured
threats to sovereignty could presage a wider rejection of globalism. NEP 2020
appears to be inclusive but tacitly presents to be otherwise.
School Education
NEP 2020 emphasizes on ensuring universal access to school
education at all levels pre- school to secondary. The infrastructure support,
innovative education centers to bring back dropouts into the mainstream, tracking
of students and their learning levels, facilitating multiple pathways to
learning
that involve both formal and
non-formal education modes, association of counselors or well-trained social
workers with schools, open learning for classes 3, 5 and 8 through NIOS and
State Open Schools, secondary education programs equivalent to Grades 10 and
12, vocational courses, adult literacy and life-enrichment programs are some of
the proposed ways for achieving the universal accesses concept.
These are essentially the
renewed concepts found in the NEP 2020.
The
ground reality of the urban and rural poor is sometime beyond the imagination
of a city centered decision makers. This reality need to be addressed not
merely by changes in education policy but equally an economic policy.
“As per the 75th round household survey by NSSO in 2017-18, the
number of out of school children in the age group of 6 to 17 years is 3.22
crore.” This gives rise to a new scope of study to identify the dropouts in a
particular area wise and pursue them to re-enter into education. The policy
commits to as a
priority to bring these
children back into the educational fold as early as possible, and to prevent
further students from dropping out, with a goal to achieve 100% Gross Enrolment
Ratio in preschool to secondary level by 2030. This is only possibly by opening
additional schools and providing the dropouts, not only motivation but also the
basic needs of life.
Curriculum and Pedagogy:
Learning should be
Holistic, Integrated, Enjoyable, and Engaging. The structuring of school
curriculum and pedagogy of 5+3+3+4, Curricular structure corresponding to ages
3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively. This will bring the uncovered
age group of 3-6 years into a formalized structure. The new system will have 12
years of schooling with three years of Anganwadi/ pre schooling. The concept of
Bal Bhavans to promote art and culture is definitely a good step forward. One needs
to wonder about the number of qualified, trained and motivated teachers and
infrastructure to handle this given the current scenario of our Nation.
Recruitment and Deployment
To ensure that outstanding students enter the teaching profession
- especially from rural areas - a large number of merit-based scholarships
shall be instituted across the country for studying quality 4 year integrated
B.Ed. programs. In rural areas, special merit-based scholarships will be
established that also include preferential employment in their local areas upon
successful completion of their B.Ed. programs. Such scholarships will provide
local job opportunities to local students, especially female students, so that
these students serve as local-area role models and as highly qualified teachers
who speak the local language. Incentives will be provided for teachers to take
up teaching jobs in rural areas, especially in areas that are currently facing
acute shortage of quality teachers. A key incentive for teaching in rural
schools will be the provision of local housing near or on the school premises
or increased housing allowances. Demand for teacher education will increase as
there will be more employment opportunities in schools to meet the requirement
of 100% GER in secondary level and formal school years are increased from 12 to
15 years.
Teacher Eligibility Tests (TETs) will be strengthened to inculcate
better test material, both in terms of content and pedagogy. The TETs will also
be extended to cover teachers across all stages (Foundational, Preparatory,
Middle and Secondary) of school education. For subject teachers, suitable TET
or NTA test scores in the corresponding subjects will also be taken into
account for recruitment. To gauge passion and motivation for teaching, a
classroom demonstration or interview will become an integral part of teacher
hiring at schools and school complexes. These interviews would also be used to
assess comfort and proficiency in teaching in the local language, so that every
school/school complex has at least some teachers who can converse with students
in the local language and other prevalent home languages of students. Teachers
in private schools also must have qualified similarly through TET, a
demonstration/interview, and knowledge of local language(s).”
Integration of TET coaching will create demand for teacher
education and this will be right step to increase quality in school
education.
Again will the teaching
training institutes mostly focus only on getting the student through TET or
teach them to understand and create conceptual frameworks and innovative
pedagogy to make vision a reality.
Continuous Professional Development
(CPD)
Teachers
will be given continuous opportunities for self-improvement and to learn the
latest innovations and advances in their professions. These will be offered in
multiple modes, including in the form of local, regional, state, national, and
international workshops as well as online teacher development modules.
Platforms (especially online platforms) will be developed so that teachers may
share ideas and best practices. Each teacher will be expected to participate in
at least 50 hours of CPD opportunities every year for their own professional
development, driven by their own interests. CPD opportunities will, in particular,
systematically cover the latest pedagogies regarding foundational literacy and
numeracy, formative and adaptive assessment of learning outcomes,
competency-based learning, and related pedagogies, such as experiential
learning, arts-integrated, sports-integrated, and storytelling-based
approaches, etc. CPD is in a positive direction but the cost involved will also
be high. Who will share the cost…?
A
common guideline of National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be
developed by 2022, by the National Council for Teacher Education in its
restructured new form as a Professional Standard Setting Body (PSSB) under
General Education Council (GEC). And there will also be the special educators
to handle the differently abled children.
Standard-setting and
Accreditation for School Education
NEP 2020 envisages clear,
separate systems for policy making, regulation, operations and academic
matters. States/UTs will set up independent State School Standards Authority
(SSSA). Transparent public self-disclosure of all the basic regulatory
information, as laid down by the SSSA, will be used extensively for public
oversight and accountability. The SCERT will develop a School Quality
Assessment and Accreditation Framework (SQAAF) through consultations with all stakeholders.
Will the school leadership have time to engage in teaching and the facilitation
of teachers or will they be busy only with documentations?
Higher Education
The
underpinning philosophy of higher education appears to be self-reliance,
autonomy and industry readiness, which is a shift from democracy and knowledge.
The entry and exit freedom is definitely good in an ideal situation but in
country like ours, where the poverty is so rampant, and this freedom may not
engender the desired impact but rather create block for the upward mobility.
The policy has a lot of good intensions but the actualization is a challenge
with the existing faculty, mental frame work and rules. We require a paradigm shift
that more profound.
We need a shift in our education system as
the world is changing rapidly, a change propelled by innovative technology and
communication tools. The new policy has to embrace diversity in all its forms
and nurture nation building, rooted in the values of the constitution and the
ethos of our age-old tradition.
Our
outgoing students should be able to compete in a global village. The NEP 2020
may not prepare them to enter into a world of possibility but may walk them to
mere existence. The timing of the announcement of the policy is all the more intriguing
as the entire education system is limping due to the pandemic. The age of
eighteen is the voting age and the compulsory education until then can be a
tool in a politically active world. We are yet to know and learn about the
needed legal enactments that will ensure the translation of the policy into
reality. Let us dream NEP2020 ……..
Transforming India into a global
knowledge superpower!
(Dr. Paul Pudussery CSC is a Social Science
Researcher who is actively engaged in knowledge construction and its
application at the grassroots)
(Published on 17th August 2020,
Volume XXXII, Issue 34)
