NEW DELHI: On Wednesday, in a major development, the Union Cabinet has approved the New Education Policy known as NEP. The cabinet has also decided to change the name of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to Ministry of Education.
According to the NEP, the government has decided to form a vibrant knowledge society by ensuring higher quality education to all, making India a “global knowledge super power”.
The Cabinet briefing was addressed by Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar & Ramesh Pokhriyal.
While referring to the policy, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that 2.25 lakh recommendations were received when the draft was made public.
Speaking about this major advances, Prakash Javadekar said that it is a historic decision. Further addressing the media, He said that “The NEP that was necessitated to shape the students and prepare them to face the challenges of the new age world, will remain a testimony to the widest ever consultations done in preparing a policy to meet the requirements of NewIndia”
The education department will focus more on bringing uniformity in education, providing universal access to quality education and improving the quality of elementary education through a new national curriculum framework.
Special focus will be given on how technology can be used in the education sector such as online classes, webinars, education portal and class-wise broadcast on dedicated education channels.
“The policy is aimed at bringing transformational change, not incremental change”, said Amit Khare, Education secretary.
According to the HRD Ministry, the last modification to the National Education policy was made in 1992 and Today after 34 years, some major reforms are being made to the policy under the tutelage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Key points of New National Education Policy 2020:
- New system of education
The 10+2 system will be divided into 5+3+3+4 format. The NEP changes the school education system to 5+3+3+4 format. This means the first five years of the school will comprise of the foundation stage including three years of pre-primary school and classes 1 and class 2. The next three years will be divided into a preparatory stage from classes 3 to 5. Later three years of middle stage (classes 6 to 8), and four years of secondary stage (classes 9 to 12).
Schools will not have any rigid formation of streams of arts, commerce, science, students can take up whichever courses they want.
- E-courses to be available in regional languages
Tech to be part of education planning, teaching, learning, assessment, teacher, school, and student training. The e-content to be available in regional languages. Starting with 8 major languages – Kannada, Odia, Bengali among others to join the e-courses available in Hindi and English.
- Education to get 6% of GDP
Public investment in the education sector to reach 6% of GFP at the earliest. Currently it’s around 4.43% including state and center govt.
- NEP Aim to have 50% GER
NEP Aims to increase the gross enrolment ratio to 50% by 2035. To ensure the same, holistic, and multidisciplinary education with flexibility of subjects to be allowed.
- NEP to be available in 22 languages, audio books
Last NEP was the last set-up in 1968 and updated in 92. It has been followed since then. The NEP 2020 will be available in 22 languages and audio books.
- All institutes to be research institutes
By 2040, all higher education institutions (HEIs) shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions, each of which will aim to have 3,000 or more students.
The National Education Policy was adopted in 1986 and the last time it was modified was in 1992. In May 2019, the government presented the draft NEP which aimed to provide quality education to every child in the age group of 3-18 by 2030. The draft for NEP was checked by the Prime Minister in May 2020 last time.