National Education Policy (NEP) 2019 : The draft of National Educational Policy has been submitted to the Union HRD Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Minister of State for HRD, Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre in New Delhi by Committee led by the Chairman Dr. Kasturirangan on Friday May 31, 2019.
Vision of NEP 2019 : The National Education Policy 2019 envisions an India-centred education system that contributes directly to transforming our nation sustainably into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society, by providing high quality education to all.
Aim of National Educational Policy 2019 :
- To provide students with the sufficient skills and knowledge to enhance their future
- To rectify the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry
- The Draft National Education Policy, 2019 is built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability.
Highlights of NEP 2019 :
1. The committee has decided to rename Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD ) as Ministry of Education (MoE).
2. In school education, the Policy emphasizes the criticality of early childhood education and the significance of it throughout an individual’s life.
3. The curricular and pedagogical structure of education in schools will be restructured to make it more effective and relevant to the developmental needs and interests of learners at different stages of their development.
4. It also seeks to reduce content load in school education curriculum.
5. There will be no hard separation of learning areas in terms of curricular, co-curricular or extra- curricular areas and all subjects, including arts, music, crafts, sports, yoga, community service, etc will be curricular.
The new resconstructed curricular, pedagogical structure and the curricular framework for school education will therefore be guided by a 5+3+3+4 design:
- Foundational Stage (age 3-8 years): Will Focus mainly on rapid brain development; learning will be based on play and active discovery
- Preparatory Stage (8-11 years): This stage will concentrate building on play and discovery; begin the transition to structured learning
- Middle Stage (11-14 years): This stage will help students in Learning concepts of various subjects; begin navigating adolescence
- Secondary Stage (14-18 years): Preparation for livelihood and higher education;
transition into young adulthood
6. It promotes active pedagogy that will focus on the development of core capacities: and life skills, including 21st century skills.
7.All examinations (including Board examinations) will test core concepts and skills, along with higher order capacities. By 2025, assessment at middle school level and above will be through adaptive computerized testing.
8. The minimum degree qualification for teachers will be 4-year integrated stage-specific B.Ed. programme.
9. In higher education, a restructuring of higher education institutions with three types of higher education institutions is proposed-
Type 1: Focused on world-class research and high quality teaching.
Type 2: Focused on high quality teaching across disciplines with significant contribution to research.
Type 3: High quality teaching focused on undergraduate education. This will be driven by two Missions –Mission Nalanda & Mission Takshashila.
10. There will be re-structuring of Undergraduate programs (e.g. BSc, BA, BCom, BVoc) of 3 or 4 years duration and having multiple exit and entry options.
11. A new apex body Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog is introduced to enable a holistic and integrated implementation of all educational initiatives and to coordinate efforts between the Centre and states.
12. The National Research Foundation, an apex body is proposed for creating a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.
13. The four functions of standard setting, Funding, Accreditation and Regulation to be separated and conducted by independent bodies: National Higher Education Regulatory Authority as the only regulator for all higher education including professional education.
14. Creation of accreditation eco-system led by revamped NAAC.
15. Professional Standard Setting Bodies for each area of professional education and UGC to transform to Higher Education Grants Commission (HEGC).
16. The private and public institutions will be treated on par and to make education a ‘non profit’ activity.
17. New policy initiatives have been made for promoting internationalization of higher education, strengthening the quality open and distance learning, technology integration at all levels of education.
18. There will be main focus on promotion of Indian and classical languages by setting up three new National Institutes for Pali, Persian and Prakrit.
19. The Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI) has been recommended.
20. The committee proposes for massive transformation in teacher education by shutting down sub-standard teacher education institutions and moving all teacher preparation/education programmes into large multidisciplinary universities/colleges.
Why NEP 2019 is opposed ?
The draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019 found itself drawn into a high-profile controversy soon after the ministry of human resources development posted it online for soliciting feedback late last month.
The points of contradiction are :
- The policy has ignite the Hindi language debate in South once again :
The NEP in its new draft 2019 has mentioned that Hindi language will be mandatory and to be a part of one of the three languages of study in school. The opposition in south India, especially in the state of Tamil Nadu, was so prominent that the NEP committee withdrew the linguistic policy mandate at issue.
The NEP draft which contains a 500-page report states that non-Hindi speaking states like Tamil would also include the regional language, English and Hindi, while states, where Hindi is spoken, would have English and another modern Indian language in addition to Hindi.
“Students will be required to attain proficiency in discussing their major in at least one Indian language through an appropriate written project or presentation in that language,” the policy says.
This has hit the non Hindi speaking communities in Tamil Nadu and sparked the Hindi language debate in south once again.
The school education minister of Tamil Nadu took the lead in criticising the Hindi-related proposal in the new policy as most of the people in south known only Tamil and English and imposing Hindi on them be will intolerable.
“Tamil Nadu will follow only two-language policy. Only Tamil and English will bravely march in Tamil Nadu,” said KA Sengottaiyan, whose AIADMK party is an ally of the BJP which rules at the Centre.
The Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu has come up with anti-Hindi sentiments against the government.
2. New education policy seems to affect 10+2 format :
The policy recommends replacing the 10+2 format with a 5+3+3+4 structure.
This implies five years of a ‘Foundational Stage’ that will include three years of pre-primary and classes 1 and 2. It will be followed by three years of ‘Preparatory Stage’, three years of middle school and four years of secondary stage.
According to NEP, All students will have to take state census exams in grades 3, 5 and 8 where they would be tested on core concepts, knowledge and higher order skills.
The grade 3 census examination would test basic literacy, numeracy, and other foundational skills of the students.
Each year of the secondary stage will be divided into two semesters. Each student would take five to six subjects in each semester.
To prevent “the harmful effects of board and entrance examinations”, the panel has decided to recommend restructuring them to a ‘modular’ format allowing students to take the board examination in each subject at the end of the semester in which they take that subject. Students will be expected to take a total of at least 24 subject board examinations, or on average three a semester instead of final examinations.
The NEP has focus of Mother Language which strongly recommends making the mother tongue the mode of instruction at least until class five and preferably till at least class eight.
It also says that Sanskrit should be offered at all levels of school and higher education as one of the optional languages. All students will be asked to take at least two years of a classical language of India in classes 6-8, with the option to continue through secondary education and university.