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| New education policy 2020 |
Finally, after 34 years of the long wait, the Indian government announced the new education policy in July 2020. It is the 3rd educational policy of our country. The previously formed educational policy was outdated. No government would ever take any steps regarding this topic but finally, we got our new education policy which is needed barely.
HISTORY OF EDUCATION POLICY
Our country India, Got its first education policy in 1968 by the Indira Gandhi government. Then after 18 years, the Rajiv Gandhi government introduced the second education policy in the year1986. Then after 34 years, The Modi Government announce the 3rd and the latest education policy in July 2020. It was a very huge gap between the 2nd and 3rd education policy. There was another educational policy which was introduced in 1992 but it only features some minor changes to the 2nd policy. It was said that the 1992 policy was almost the same as the 1986 policy.
The 1st education policy which was introduced by the Indira Gandhi government was based on the recommendation of the Kothari Commission. Many recommendations of the Kothari Commission were implemented by the government. But it was one of the Kothari Commission recommendations which were not implemented by the Indian Govt that India should allocate 6% of its GDP for education. But not any govt. never spent 6% of GDP on education since independence.
EXPENDITURE ON EDUCATION, INDIA VS OTHER COUNTRIES
India spends less amount of money on education. In the financial year 2017-18, the total public expenditure on education was just 2.7% of GDP. India spends roughly 3.5 to 4 % of its GDP on education. Over the last five years, the annual public investment in education has been hovering around 3% of GDP.
In comparison to other countries, India spends a very low amount of budget on education. Even some countries have a smaller economy and having various types of problems regarding their budget, they spent a high percentage of money according to their GDP.
Bhutan spends 7.5% of its GDP on education. Zimbabwe, a country with many difficulties in their economy spends 7.5% of its GDP on education. Sweeden spends 7.5% of its GDP on education. Costa Rica and Finland spend 7% of their GDP on education. It is said that Finland's education system is the best education system in the world. The central Asian country Kyrgistan, South Africa, and Brazil spend 6% of their GDP on education. The U.K, Netherland, and Palestine spend 5.5% of their GDP on education. Malaysia, Kenya, Mongolia, Koria, and the USA spend 5% of their GDP on education. According to the Chinese Govt, they spend more than 4% of their GDP on education.
Note
All the data provided are according to the draft national education policy 2019.
CHANGES MADE IN NEP 2020
There are many changes that are going to happen according to this new education policy in 2020. But the major changes that are going to happen in the field of:-
- School Education
- Language
- Higher Education
- Technology
- Finance
- Implementation
SCHOOL EDUCATION
The current school education system follows the 10 + 2 pattern. According to this pattern, students learn 10 years that are age 6 to 16 in which students common subjects and 2 years that is age 16 to 18 of specific study in which students have to choose one stream out of science, arts, and commerce to achieve their further study. But this 10 + 2 education system is going to be replaced by 5 + 3 + 3 + 4 education system.
5+3+3+4 EDUCATION SYSTEM
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| 5+3+3+4 education system |
This newly introduced education system has 4 stages. Foundation stage, Preparatory stage, Middle stage, and Secondary stage are the name of that 4 stages of education.
Foundational stage(5 years)
Latter 6 years was the minimum age of education but according to this system, it is reduced to 3 years. These 5 years of the Foundational stage include 3 years of Anganwadi education or pre-school education which is called pre-primary school from age 3 to 6 years that are going to be added in school education and 2 years of class 1 and class 2 education from the age 6 to 8 years.
Preparatory stage(3 years)
According to the new educational policy, preparatory stages include class 3, 4, and 5th class students. It is a 3-year stage.Middle stage(3 years)
Class 6th,7th, and 8th students are put into the Middle stage of education and it is also a 3 years stage.Secondary stage(4 years)
In this Secondary stage 9th,10th, 11th, and 12th class students are included. In the previous education system, students are allowed to choose subjects after the 10th pass that is in the 11th standard. But in this new system of education students can choose subjects according to their choice. That means there is no rigidity in subject choosing. Even a science stream students can choose economics or any commerce subject or any arts subject if he has a willingness to study that subject.
BOARD EXAM
As per the new educational policy, the board exam that was conducted in the previous education system shall remain the same but their importance is going to decrease in terms of collage selection and stream choice. The focus will be on the testing concept and knowledge application.
Every year there will be two board exams. Among these two exams in which exam students' scores well is going to be considered. That means students have a second chance to improve their marks on the board exam. If a student is not good at one subject he/she can choose the level of exams. Suppose a student is not good at mathematics he can opt for the medium-level exam that means not a high-level exam that regular students face.
When the new pattern board exam?
It is expected that the new format board exam will be held in the academic year 2022-23 because it is time-consuming for the system to change its pattern. That means if you just pass 10th this year and you will face the 12th board exam in 2022 then you have to appear exam in the old pattern. The same goes for 8th class students. The old pattern 10th board exam will be held until 2022.
LANGUAGE
The new education policy focus on mother-tongue as the medium of instruction. The new policy says that the medium of instruction that means in which language the students' study should be in their mother-tongue, home language, the local language, regional language. According to this policy, it is also preferable that this language should be continued in the 8th class or beyond that. This policy particularly mentioned that"Wherever possible" that means it is not mandatory it is optional.
HIGHER EDUCATION
There will be a new entrance exam called the Common Entrance Exam(CEE) that will be held by The National Testing Agency(NTA) for admission to universities across the country. If you qualify in this entrance exam you will be able to take admission in all the universities in India.
The entrance will be held in two-part one is a common aptitude test and specialized subjects like science, humanities, language, arts, and vocational subjects. The CEE will be held twice in a year. CEE will not be considered in fields like Medical and law.
UGC, which governs higher studies will be replaced by the Higher Education Commission of India(HECI) that will work for entire higher education except for Medical and legal education. Affiliation of collage will be phase out in the next 15 years. Like Utkal University have many affiliate collage. These affiliate collages will be phase out and will be made an autonomous college.
All the universities and colleges will be consisting of multidisciplinary that means one collage should not have one discipline i.e science, arts. They must add multiple disciplines. It is aimed to achieve multidisciplinary collages across India by 2040.
Multiple Exit Options in Undergraduate course
The Under Graduate program will be a 4-year course and there will be multiple exit options during that course. Suppose you choose to do an undergraduate course in computer science. As you know it will be a 4-year course, if you leave the course after 1st year then you will get a certificate for that. If you leave the course after 2 years then you will get an Advance diploma certificate. If you leave the course after 3 years you will get a Bachelor's degree for than and if you complete this course you will get a Bachelor's degree with Research certificate. This will be applied to all courses.
A new concept that is Academic Bank of Credit will be formed to store all academic credits earned from completing HEIs so that these can be transferred and counted towards the final degree earned.
There will be no M Phil course according to the new education policy. M Phil which is Masters of Philosophy is the middle research degree between MA and Ph.D.
FORAIGN COLLAGES IN INDIA
Foreign colleges or universities will be permitted to open their campus in India. This will help many good universities to come and open their campus in India and it will also help the students who go abroad to make their studies.
TECHNOLOGY
Major evolution will take place in the field of technology in education. A National Education Technology Forum(NETF) will be created. In the education system, the technology will be used in Teaching-learning and Assessment, Education Planning, Digital India Campaign, Administration and Management, Regulation through public Disclosures.
Technology will be also used in the field of:-
- Massive Online Courses
- Divyang Friendly Educational Software
- E-Content in various Language
- To Meet 21st Century Challenges
- Virtual Labs
- Online Assessment and Examination
FINANCE
As we previously discuss before India is far behind in terms of funding to education. The current budget for education is around 3% of the GDP. According to new Education Policy, it will be increased to 6%. Before it is also proposed to allocate 6% of GDP in education but it never happened. Hope this time the government would realize the value of quality education and allocate 6% of GDP in education.
IMPLEMENTATION
The new education policy only provides a broad direction and it is not mandatory to follow by the state government of all states. They can modify or set their own policy to make it more efficient. Since education is a concurrent list subject, the reforms proposed can only be implemented collaboratively by the Center and the State. The government has set a target of 2040 to implement the entire policy.
This is probably going to change the entire infrastructure of our education. Our children can get a quality education in their locality. I hope all the changes that are made in the new education policy is going to be followed by the state government very soon.