As we all are aware of the new education policy was unveiled by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (erstwhile Ministry of Education) and also gave a press brief, which was telecast by the PIB on its YouTube channel. While the new plan and policies sound good on the face there are always pros and cons with a system, let us see what are pros and cons of each addition added to in the way of revamping the education system. But first, we shall dig a little into the history of reforms in this particular sector.
History
While we all know when the last educational reforms were in this nation were about 34 years ago, we are in dire need of a new educational reform. We desperately needed a new and good system to educated the young generation and the major-minor subject model, which is prevalent in many foreign countries was to be considered for this, the system of major minor type subject model is considering the interest of the student, if the student wants to do something that appeals to him but is unconventional, it has to be allowed as it is something the child wants to do. There is a very old saying that Do what you love and you will never feel it as a burden. Nonetheless, we shall first look at the history of reforms done by previous governments.
In 1968 new education policy was introduced by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the recommendations of the Kothari Commission. This reform was to have some radical restructuring and fill the gaps of the previous education system. These changes also included the promise to dedicate 6% of GDP towards education. Free and compulsory education till the age of 14, but as we know, this was completely adopted in the form of the Right to Education Act, which was enacted in 2009 (passed in 2002 as a constitutionally fundamental right under Article 21A), though the idea was conceived much earlier. It is noteworthy that many of these policies have remained the same and unachieved over a long period; no matter who sat in the power-sharing seat, the dilapidated condition of Indian education remained the same year over year. This also includes the provision of regional language and three language system, i.e. Hindi & English as first and second language respectively, which was introduced by previous govts as well and one more language as optional or choice, this education policy also had provision to teach Sanskrit to the Indians as this is considered as an indigenous ancient language and a part of Indian culture and heritage, which made a mark on many Indian people.
1986 Rajiv Gandhi National Education Policy
This needs no introduction as it might have widely been criticized by people and other organizations, and yet it is being criticized, the introduction of SC/ST/special groups in education, basically a reservation in education and elite colleges. This not only opened doors of education to the poor but also paved the way for development and the end of an era where the concentration of education was limited to many special groups. Lauded by many groups and criticised by many, but in the end it was adopted and changed the face of the Indian education system for real. To achieve such a social integration, the policy called for expanding scholarships, adult education, recruiting more teachers from the SCs, incentives for poor families to send their children to school regularly, developing new institutions, and providing housing and services. The NPE called for a "child-centred approach" in primary education, and launched "Operation Blackboard" to improve primary schools nationwide. The expenditure on education, to be 6% of GDP, remained untouched in this policy too, but again it failed to achieve the target.
1992 Narsimha Rao’s modification
Though we always tend to underrate and forget the efforts of other non-Gandhian leaders’ reforms, let us be just to history, the 1986 education policy was reformed, and the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao made some significant changes in the system, which we have tended to forget. Here are some.
· Introduced entrance examination for medical and engineering colleges; these introductory exams were made for entrance in elite colleges like IIT, NIT, and SFTIs.
· Expansion of education and introduction of the open education system, viz. Indira Gandhi Open University. This enabled the working class and others who were unable to get a regular education to join the mainstream and get educated. This has influenced the education system so much so that now the Modi government has proposed to expand this model to schools as well.
New Education Policy 2020
There is a lot of criticism of this new education policy, and a lot more myths are making the rounds on Twitter and the internet. Let's look at the details, as I have always believed that the devil lies in the details.
No hard-line separators between science, commerce, and arts students
This is truly a foundation for equal society, generally in our society people often said things like “your kind is so smart he /she should take science as his major, his future would be more secured, wow he got xx% he must be a science student etc etc” and then kids too pick this attitude that if they are from science they think that they are far more superior than their commerce and arts counterparts, this is the positive change than this education system has bought.
Also, the added benefit is that if a science student also wants to read subjects of arts/history or humanities, this will be allowed, giving more freedom to the student in exploring their interests.
Con
There is a huge chance that the parents create a soft pressure on the kids while constantly comparing with other kids, and their majors, the infamous Sharma ji ka londa takes science and scores good marks, there can be a chance that the parents also create a similar pressure that you should also be like him. It's high time that parents need to understand that your kid is unique, your fingers aren’t of the same length, the leaves of a plant aren’t always of the same size, so why do you think that your kid can be the same as “Sharma ji’s boy”? Embrace his uniqueness and encourage him/her to make their own decisions right from a tender age.
Promoting Multilingualism and the power of language
There are numerous studies that have been published in recent years showing umpteen advantages of learning new languages, apart from increasing chances of getting a job, knowing multiple languages can enhance speed learning, problem solving, critical thinking, and many other life skills. The University of Washington has been conducting many such studies. And in a Nation like India, where there are 22 scheduled languages and more than 2200 dialects and other languages where we have also been in dire need to save them, why can we teach them to our kids and benefit by them as well. I mean, why not?
The word Hindi occurs in the NEP just once that to as an example to explain that the education system wants the kid to learn the early concepts in his/her mother tongue, thus removing the burden of learning a foreign language, once the kid learns his/her mother tongue then it becomes easy for him to learn other language by comparing. Remember how we were through other languages once we master C, C++? It's similar to that.
Assessment
The NEP 2020 makes a special arrangement for assessing students’ performance, a catchy phrase “360-degree report card” gets flashed more often, let us see what it means and how it will benefit the student as well as their parents. For this purpose, the Gov. has also set up a new national assessment centre called PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), which seems like they love their acronyms.
The Assessment will be done by three major parties it the student, teacher, and his/her classmates. Let's have a look at what and how this will help the student in his/her capacity.
Teacher’s assessment: This is common and it’s done by teachers, mainly the class teachers. The kids are assessed on their performance in examinations, and after the introduction of Continuation and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), the parameters have increased. Instead of just one teacher and one exam, the student was evaluated on various levels, viz, sports, arts, friendship, teamwork, social connection, extracurricular, personal interests, and health (psychological and physical).
Students’ self-assessment: the student will be assessing himself and have to observe himself and say what he likes and dislikes, this small exercise will go a long way in his life, we may have often seen such example where the student doesn’t know what he wants and until he known what he loves to do it is too late and his life is already on a wrong tack. This can, in later life, cause dissatisfaction, frustration, and lead to mental stress in many cases, so to avoid all these, the kid needs to know what he loves and make the right decision with that. With this self-assessment/they will know what to choose and what will give them a happy and content-filled life. We must work, but not stressfully; rather, live joyfully.
Friend’s/Classmates’ assessment: this is the most important and strong point of this system, you not only have to learn but also fit into the society when you get out of your school, this will make the student more adaptive to outer world, will also teach the students to understand the world around him in a better way, meaning, this assessment will make sure that the kid has at least one good friend and will also know how to observe not only himself, but also people around him. This exercise will help the holistic development of the child in the long term.
Let’s talk about the much-talked-about 5+3+3+4 system and semester-type examination.
People have been worried about the pattern the government has chosen; instead of 10+02, this new system seems fishy and complicated, but it's not. Human kids grow in stages, we have classified it into the new-born (just born and delicate), infancy (3-6 months), toddler (1-3 years), adolescent ( up to 10 years), teenager (10-19), adult (18+) (then adults are also classified into three kinds young, middle and older adults). The point is that when we have so many stages in life while we grow up, then what makes us think that the development of the brain will not be in stages, and hence there must be more stages and milestones while we grow and learn. This idea has given birth to this sort of “complex-sounding not-so-complex” system.
With age, the kid will learn in stages, hence making it easier for the kid to learn and grasp more during his first 6 years of learning, as it is said that 85% of the brain develops during this period.
Semester system
People went berserk when they heard that schools would also follow the semester system. Well, I honestly don’t blame them; it's hard for them to digest this fact, but only a few people recognise that it's not a problem; rather, it’s a solution. In many professional degrees, we have this system in place to teach more and make student understand more about their subjects. The major pro of this system is that it will allow the kid to learn more, without leaving out tiny details. Earlier, we had to cram up the whole text at the end of the year, so as a natural consequence, our kids just read important stuff and left much of the syllabus under pressure to complete the syllabus. Also, it developed a culture of cramming things up and puking the information mindlessly like a robot without understanding it completely. While the semester system is in place, the kid will be focused on details and a small syllabus, hence less burden and more detailed and holistic learning.
Nurturing Special talents and learning how to respect every section and job
The government has made sure that the kid doesn’t disrespect any job and doesn’t look down upon any person’s job. To curb this, the kid has to go through an internship programme with his nearby vendor, hawker, shops, carpenters, and iron smith. No, this doesn’t mean that the kid has to do some work to earn the internship; hence, the comment that this policy makes child labor legal is just an accusation, which is being too harsh on the government and its executives. The meaning of internship is completely different when it is applied in a smaller age group. It can mean that the kid has to observe the kind of work these people do to create empathy among them at a young age, and also make them understand how important these people are in this society.
Many parents never allow their kids to unfold the genius in them completely, well, there is no fault of theirs in it, they have seen the world and learned that poetry, singing, acting, dance, drama, sports are not very much demanded skill in the outer world, but the world is constantly changing and so must we, taking this in mind, the policy has a special place for such Children’s’, now kids will be able to take these activities as a subject and not as extra-curricular activities hence profiting them even in their academics and encouraging them to do what they truly enjoy and love to do. Gone are the times when we followed the saying “padhoge likhoge to banoge nawab, kheloge kudoge to banoge kharab”; it will now be “Kuch bhi karoge to banoge nawab”.
Higher education
In the past article, we read a few things about the schooling system and some of its changes. Let us now have a look at higher education and its changes.
The policy focus on multidisciplinary education, just as in the schooling mode the same system is continued about even in the higher education, i.e. the inclusion of extracurricular activities as main subjects which will encourage the student to take these subjects seriously and nurture their liking further with studies shaping his personality to a very large extend.
Moving towards a multidisciplinary system, gaining expertise
The system in higher education is in tandem with the schooling system designed, when the student is fully aware of his/her strengths and weakness, it enables him to choose for himself a very holistic and non-bounded course setup which is highly customized according to the interests and learning speed of an individual which later enables students with varying learning speed equate at one level this giving them a truly level playing field.
1. The student can take a major subject and minor subjects. The ward can choose his major subject, viz, if he wishes to do engineering and also chooses to read music, drama, dance, etc, this will allow the kid to have a certain amount of self-confidence and a sense of belonging.
2. This will also allow the kid to raise to his/her highest potential. This will also help in producing highly employable individuals in various sectors. Instead of factory-like setups, this type of education system will promote a happy and confident individual.
There are no cons of this particular system until and unless the parents force their kids to take other minor subjects by comparing individual kids to the “Next door Sharma hi ka ladka”
Stage-wise degree programme
The Ministry of Education (formally Ministry of Human Resource Development) has decided to make a provision for the students who for some unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances have to leave their education in middle, viz a student who leaves his/her course of engineering or doctorate in the middle then in such case the MOE will award him/her relevant degree/certificate/diploma of the relevant course making them take up a suitable job and saving their precious time. And if the student in the future any time, feels like joining back, he/she will be allowed to continue the course from the year he has left, hence avoiding repetition.
1. This provision makes an attempt to save the time and energy of the student and ease his/her work with respect to getting educated the way they want to, in short, the ministry has made sure that the individual takes full control of his/her life.
2. By giving out step wise degree/certificates and giving a chance to re-join at any point of time, the system has allowed many possibilities, the person who didn’t feel like doing the course can just drop out taking a certificate and join any other course saving money and time and thus investing his energy in something he/she might like. Unlike now, where irrespective of weather, you do the course of leave, you still have to pay the full fee of the course in many private institutions, which forces the student to complete the course and end up having a miserable life.
Stratagem for a new India and holistic development.
Special care is taken by making provision for special students who are poor/differently abled. These students are allowed to study in normal schools under the existing laws, viz, Article 15 not discriminate against any human on any grounds. It is generally used in the context of SC/ST and other groups, but this applies equally to all the special groups, including the Disabled/especially abled persons. But for all practical purposes, we can say that many non-governmental organizations don’t let these kids join their esteemed universities, making it difficult for these students to continue their education. The open university concept acts as a boon for many of these students, allowing them to get educated in difficult circumstances.
1. Special care is taken so that no student is left behind in getting educated and thus contributes their share to the development of this nation.
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