A draft National Education Policy (NEP) was submitted to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) by the Kasturirangan Committee on May 31. NEP is a result of four years of a long-drawn collaborative, multi-stakeholder process, where at first, inputs from T.S.R. Subramanian committee were submitted in 2016. It was followed by a massive consultation exercise conducted online, in-person with experts and at the grassroots. These inputs were then examined and finalized by the present committee.

The draft stresses that foundational pillars of NEP include access, equity, quality, affordability and accountability in education, with a focus on reinventing Indian education in the new technology rich environment.  

Pre-school education to get importance

NEP includes several significant recommendations, most important of which is restructuring school education from 10+2 to a 5+3+3+4 design, with an aim to include pre-school education as an integral part of the educational structure. The proposed design has a well-defined, four interconnected stages of school education.

First 5 years or the Foundational Stage includes 3 years of pre-primary and grades 1 and 2 are marked by flexible, play-based, activity-based, and discovery-based learning. Next three years of Preparatory Stage comprise of Grades 3,4, and 5 where there is a gradual initiation into more formal, textbook based learning.

This is followed by 3 years of Middle Stage, where students of Grades 6, 7, 8 will be introduced to subject teachers and learning of more abstract concepts. Secondary or High Stage of Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 will continue with the subject-oriented pedagogical and curricular style of the previous stage but with greater flexibility of choice and will involve greater understanding and critical thinking.

Rationalization of school curriculum

Besides structure, the draft policy proposes some crucial much-needed changes in pedagogical approach. It lays stress on interactive classrooms, promoting holistic development of learners, with a focus on experiential learning, aimed at developing critical thinking.

Furthermore, the NEP 2019 also calls for rationalization of school curriculum, where the contents of each subject will be reduced to its core, focussing only on fundamental concepts and crucial ideas. This will build scope for more discussion, in-depth analysis and application of knowledge.

It does away with the notion of separating learning areas into curricular, co-curricular or extra- curricular to treat all subjects, including arts, crafts, yoga and sports, as part of curricular. It has reiterated the Kothari Commission’s idea of organising schools into school complexes which will bring about improvement in educational standards.  

Additionally, the NEP endorses some long-standing demands of the civil society like extending the Right to Education (RTE) Act to both early childhood and secondary education, extension of school nutrition programme to include breakfasts, a review of the recent amendment in RTE which put an end to no-detention policy and substantially increasing the budget allocated to education.

Controversy over three language formula

Despite several important recommendations, the draft, almost immediately quoted controversy in its suggestion to continue with the three language formula. It proposed Hindi and English as mandatory languages in non-Hindi speaking states, prompting protests over the “Hindi imposition” by Centre. This forced government to quickly revise the policy as well as specify that it is only a draft policy, which will undergo at least two rounds of reviews before being finalised.

There are, however, others, who have found merit in the multilingualism proposed by the draft policy, and criticised government’s promptness to revise as “short-term political expediency” which has “trumped well considered suggestions on educational reform”.  

It must be specified that the NEP expresses the need to draw from rich cultural heritage of India, and encourage the study of Indian Languages Sanskrit, Pali, Persian, Prakrit and various South Indian languages and their classical works at all levels of education. Besides this, NEP also mentions the need to include other regional languages or predominant variations of languages like Khariboli, Awadhi, Maithili, Braj, and Urdu literature among Hindi courses to generate interest, inclusivity and enrichment.

To initiate Mission Nalanda and Mission Takshashila

Restructuring was also proposed in higher education, where by 2030, all higher educational institutions would become into one of the following three types:

Type 1: Research Universities, which will focus equally on teaching and research and will strive to compete with prominent global institutes.

Type 2: Teaching Universities, which will focus on high quality teaching across disciplines and programmes, while also significantly contributing to quality research.

Type 3: Colleges which will focus almost exclusively on quality teaching of disciplines and will mainly run undergraduate programmes, in addition to diploma and certificate programmes and vocational and professional courses.

To kick start this new institution architecture, NEP recommends initiating Mission Nalanda and Mission Takshashila in tandem. Mission Nalanda will drive setting up of at least 100 Type 1 and 500 Type 2 higher educational institutes by 2030, keeping equitable regional distribution in mind. Mission Takshashila will focus on establishing at least one high quality educational institute in every district of India or 2 or 3 such institutes in larger districts.

A Mission Directorate will set up to oversee and manage both these missions and help with plans, milestones, funding and coordination.

Plan to rename MHRD

Several new policy initiatives to promote internationalization of higher education, supporting quality alternatives in open and distance learning, meeting the demand for MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) through learning platforms like SWAYAM, enhancing access to adult and lifelong education and elimination of gender, social category and regional gaps in education outcomes were discussed in the NEP.

To achieve this focus on education, draft policy recommends that MHRD should be renamed as Ministry of Education (MoE). Two significant new bodies, namely Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog and National Research foundation, have been proposed to be set up. The first, with Prime Minister at its helm, will provide synergy to all educational initiatives and programmatic interventions, whereas the latter would be an apex body for funding and strengthening research capacity in the higher education.

Laying stress on the teacher education programme, the NEP calls for a 4-year integrated stage-specific B.Ed. programme which must eventually be the minimum qualification for teaching. It also seeks to revamp the curricula and processes of teacher education and proposes to shut down all poorly performing teacher education institutes.

Self-accreditation of schools

Some apprehensions have been raised about NEP promoting deregulation of private schools by scrapping the role of government for recognition of schools. It suggests schools be recognised through self-accreditation, peer review and appraisal by school management committee members and fellow schools. It also proposes to remove all government inspections, enforcement of regulatory provisions and mandatory quality norms.

Further, terming the 25% reservation for poor children under Right to Education Act (RTE) as “unduly restrictive”, it calls for its review, thus encouraging commercialization and privatization of schooling, as has been argued.

Despite some of these areas of concern, by and large, the NEP sets the scene for a complete overhaul of the Indian education system and is a step forward in facilitating quality of education at all levels.   

Arpan Tulsyan is a Senior Research Scholar at the Department of Social Work, Delhi University. The views expressed here are personal.