Highlights Of New Education Policy 2020

Framed in 1986, The National Policy on Education has been through several amendments and revisions. National Education Policy 2020 is the first of its kind in the twenty-first century and replaces the thirty-four-year-old National policy on education.  A key component of this policy is alignment with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and built on the foundational pillars of equity, quality, affordability, access, and accountability. It aims to transform India into a high-spirited knowledge society and multinational knowledge powerhouse through the transformation of school and college education into a multidisciplinary, flexible, and holistic curriculum that fits the twenty-first century and helps bring out the unique capabilities of each student. 

The new policy has been brought in, keeping its predecessor's shortcomings and future and current needs in mind. A committee was formed in 2017 under the Chairmanship of former ISRO chief Dr. K. Kasturi Rangan to formulate the new education policy. The new education policy thrives on universalising education from preschool to secondary with a Gross Enrolment Ratio or GER of one hundred percent. The policy also proposes to make all universities multi-disciplinary by the year 2040. 

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In addition to starting school at three years of age and finishing high school by the age of twenty, the government has new reforms in the market. There are major reforms taking place in the education system since 1986. The new education policy 2020 is introducing recent w reforms in the education of all primary and other institutions. Here is everything that you just need to know.

New Education Policy 2020 - Salient Features

The new education policy 2020 aims to increase the state’s outlay on education from three percent gross domestic product to six percent gross domestic product. The highlights o the  new education policy 2020, also known as NEP 2020 highlights  and its provision,s have been listed below: 

1. Languages 

The National Education Policy 2020 has emphasised the importance of using one's mother tongue or local language as a mode of communication until the fifth standard and recommends its continuity until the eighth standard. Even past that, Sanskrit and foreign languages have also been emphasised. The policy recommends all students incorporate three languages in their curriculum or ‘formal,’ and at least two of these chosen languages be native to India. It also affirms that no language shall be imposed on the students. The government clarified the new education policy is a broad guideline shortly after its release. They also clarified that it was up to the states, schools, and institutions to decide how to implement it. A more detailed strategy for language is to be released in the National Curriculum Framework in the year 2021.

In line with the new national education policy 2020, schooling is now mandatory for all children falling between six to fourteen years. However, the NEP 2020 highlights also stated that education is necessary for all children starting from three to eighteen years old.

- School Education 

2. Emphasis on Numeracy and Foundational Literacy: 

The policy assigns high priority to attain Numeracy and Foundational Literacy for all students by Grade Three. The NEP 2020 highlights that the education system's biggest priority shall be to attain universal foundational literacy and numeracy in primary school by 2025, as the rest of the curriculum will only become relevant if the basic learning requirements like writing and reading, and arithmetic are achieved. The ministry of education will be setting up a National mission on prioritising numeracy and foundation literacy, upon which all state/UT governments shall immediately prepare an implementation mock-up to attain numeracy and foundation literacy through all primary schools and identify stage-wise targets to achieve the set goals by 2025 while closely tracking and monitoring the whole process.

3. The 5+3+3+4 model will take over the long-running 10+2 structure. This will be implemented as mentioned below:

Foundational Stage: This has been further divided into three years dedicated to preschool, which standard one follows, and second in primary school and will cover children aged between three to eight years old. The curriculum will be majorly focused on activity-based learning. 

Preparatory Stage - grades three to five, covering eight to eleven years, will be gradually introduced to subjects like languages, art, science, mathematics, peaking, reading, and physical education. 

Middle Stage: Grades six to eight, housing children between ages eleven and fourteen, will be dwelling students into more abstract concepts in subjects like maths, science, arts, humanities, and social sciences. 

Secondary Stage: grades nine to twelve, catering to ages fourteen to nineteen, is again subdivided into two subsequent parts; grades nine and ten covering the first phase while eleven and twelve covering the second phase. These four years of academics have been intended to incorporate multidisciplinary educations coupled with critical and dept thinking, with multiple options of subjects to choose from to pan out one curriculum.

The new policy objective is to shift the traditional educational format of teaching into a new one. Taking this structure is also given a lot of focus by the experts. This structure keeps in mind to develop a child’s capabilities, skills, and overall educational growth. This policy also states that students must learn and understand the concepts quickly and learn them in their first language. This means that you can learn and study in your mother tongue.

The policy applies countrywide, which means that it doesn’t matter where in the country you are studying. Students can now learn and grasp their mother tongue or regional language from nursery to the fifth standard. They can also continue their further studies in their home language or local language. This has to be followed by both the public as well as private schools.

4. ECCE (Early Childhood Care Education) Universalization

Every ECCE is not only preparing for primary school, but it’s more than that. This will holistically develop the child’s emotional, physical, mental, social, and cognitive needs to build a robust and wide foundation. This will help them in building their future and learn lifelong. Anganwadis and other preschools will hire teachers and workers who have specialized in the ECCE curriculum. This planning must be coordinated from the ministries, WCD (Women and Child Development) sector, HFW (Health and Family Welfare) sector, and tribal affairs.

5. Science, Arts, and Commerce rigid separation must not be enforced.

As the new policy suggests, there must not be any stiff separation of arts, sciences, and commerce. The curriculum will not change; however, curricular and other extracurricular activities will be added in their semesters. Thus, students can prefer taking up their favourite streams and subjects as they like.

2020 was a difficult year for everyone with the onset of COVID-19; however, there are some key highlights to keep in mind – the New Education Policy. It was introduced during the year 2020, making significant changes to the education system. It was done to improve the quality of education provided in the institutions, the culture that was followed had to change, and engaging new highly skilled teachers. The government replaced the 1986 education policy and was approved by the union cabinet to implement these changes in the private and public schools. You can go through the changes mentioned above to stay updated with the new education policies.