New Education Policy 2020 – Major changes in the offing
Published on : Friday 31-07-2020
Approved by the Union Cabinet, NEP2020 paves the way for transformational reforms in school and higher education sector in the country.
July 2020 – The New Education Policy aims to overhaul the country’s education system as per the announcement made by union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, The policy was earlier reviewed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi based on the draft prepared by a panel of experts led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Kasturirangan. The NEP 2020 aims at making ‘India a global knowledge superpower’. The policy, which was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992, had not been revised since then.
Highlights include:
1- Setting up of National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) to ramp up digital learning; development of E-courses in eight regional languages initially and setting up of virtual labs.
2- Standalone Higher Education Institutes and professional education institutes will be evolved into multi-disciplinary education.
3- Top 100 foreign colleges will be allowed to set-up campuses in India with special dispensation regarding regulatory, governance, and content norms on par with other autonomous institutions.
4- A single regulator for higher education institutions, multiple entry and exit options in degree courses, discontinuation of MPhil programmes, low stakes board exams, and common entrance exams for universities.
5- NEP 2020 aims to increase the gross enrolment ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3 per cent (2018) to 50 per cent by 2035. At least 3.5 crore new seats will be added to higher education institutions.
6- The policy envisages broad-based, multi-disciplinary, holistic under graduate education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification.
7- Undergraduate education can be of 3 or 4 years with multiple exit options and appropriate certification within this period.
8- Among the key reforms in the policy are a single regulator for all higher education institutions except for legal and medical colleges, common entrance exam for admissions to universities and colleges to be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and common norms to be in place for private and public higher education institutions under the Central government's new Education Policy.