Abstract
‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think’ - Albert Einstein.
The recently implemented National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is an exemplary vision undertaken by the Government of India to further enhance the prestige, utility and application of the education system of India across the world. It envisions the amalgamation of India’s rich heritage and educational principles with technology and artificial intelligence to make younger generation more self-reliant and holistically developed. The guiding principle of the NEP is to bring uniformity in foundational literacy and numeracy focusing more on vocational training and evidence/experiment-based learning. Its aim is to enhance social, cognitive, ethical and emotional capacities of the learners and bring equitable access to education for all learners regardless of their social or economic background. Major reforms have been proposed through the NEP, which have the capacity to bring a new face to the current education system, thereby changing the pre-existing policies and infusing a dynamism through fresh viewpoints.
Inclusion of Early Childhood Care and Education
A major change that has been brought in the NEP is the structural change in the school education from 10+2 structure to 5+3+3+4 structure. While the first 5 years will be Foundational, the next 3 years will be Preparatory, followed by Middle for 3 years and then Secondary for the last 4 years. While the early structure focused only on children from 1st grade, the current policy also focuses on Early Childhood Care and Education from age onwards of 3 years, which is a welcome change. NEP also envisages setting up of the National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy.
Inclusion of early childhood development in UN Sustainable Development Goals has rightly brought global attention to this neglected aspect of development. Moreover, its addressal at national level, when younger generation would be the largest component of population in coming decade, was long awaited. Addition of preschool education/care (3-8 years of age) or what has been rightly addressed in the policy as early childcare and education is a path breaking step towards better human development index and literacy rates in India. A systematic review had found that formal and non-formal or community-based preschools in low and middle income countries (LAMIC) improved scores on direct measures of children’s cognitive development and psychosocial development (Britto et al., 2017). They also ascertained that quality of the programme is the key predictor of effectiveness; additionally variety and challenging play materials, interactive or dialogic reading, classroom organization, and instructional support and nurturing environments are relevant influences (Britto et al., 2017). The NEP aims at providing flexible, multi-level, play-based, activity-based, and inquiry-based learning in upgraded anganwadis/preschools to ALL. This paradigm shift would be observed by more focus on logical thinking, reasoning, indoor and outdoor activities, puzzle solving and spatial and color recognition. Visual art, craft, drama and puppetry, music and movement will be inculcated into the curriculum. Vaskivska et al (2018) concluded that pre-school education must ensure harmonious development of the child’s personality focusing on both physical and mental health, social adaptation, and creative implementation. They also purposed that this can be achieved by innovative pedagogical technologies for development of cognitive (ability to read, write, read, analyze text, perform creative tasks, etc.), emotional and non-cognitive abilities of the child (social, emotional, ability to play storyline games, with independence, etc.) (Vaskivska et al., 2018).
Focus on Nutrition
Apart from the mid-day meals being already provided, the policy also envisages inclusion of breakfast. Undernourished children are at higher risk for developmental problems. Children who take breakfast regularly have been found to show excellent academic performance compared to those children who skip breakfast (Alqahtani et al., 2020). With the current NEP, early childhood development programme will get successfully integrated with health and nutrition (Britto et al., 2017).
Board Exams
Another major change that has occurred in the NEP is the introduction of Board exams twice a year – one main examination and, if needed, one for improvement and the students have the provision to keep the best scores out of the two exams. Also, it is planned that the board exams are to be made easier, so that the exam will test the core capacities or competencies. The Ministry of Education recently announced that the new format of twice a year board examination will be started from 2024; students can appear for exams for the syllabus that they feel prepared and ready for in the first exam and give the remainder in the next exam (India, n.d.; The Times of India, 2023). This pattern can purportedly help not only reduce the acute stress caused to the adolescents by the board exams but also improve their mental health. Out of the 10,732 deaths by suicide in the year 2021 among children less than 18 years, around 864 deaths were due to ‘failure in examination’ (National Crime Records Bureau, 2021). Board exams have been found to lead to significant mental stress in the students (Mary et al., 2014). Also, the exams till now have been primarily focused on rote learning and memorization leading to an increase in coaching culture. Introduction of twice a year board exam system, and making the exams more competence-based should hopefully bring a drastic change in this aspect, improve mental health of the students, and additionally improve the knowledge base and skills of the students.
Improving Governance Efficiency through School Complexes
There has been a need to increase the accessibility of education to all children which has led onto an increase in the number of small schools in the past few years. However, it has led onto less number of students in each school, with many schools having less number of teachers; some schools having only one teacher and the same teacher having to teach multiple or all the subjects, which can put a heavy burden on them along with compromising the quality of education (The Times of India, 2023). Although having more teachers in the school will be considered optimum, introduction of school complexes is a welcome change wherein small schools with a smaller number of students and less faculties will have an opportunity to interact with children from other schools and will have a larger resource base to help each other whenever so needed.
Home language / Regional language as “medium of instruction”
The NEP promotes the use of home language / mother tongue / regional / local language till at least grade 5, and till grade 8 if possible, as the medium of instruction. However, if the medium of instruction is different from this pattern, then it encourages the teachers to use bilingual teaching-learning methods. Also, for better understanding by the children, use of Digital technologies like DIKSHA can help to deliver the educational materials in different languages easily. Studying in home language as medium of instruction has been shown to lead to better understanding of concepts (Kackar, 2019).
Inclusion of Technology in the National Education Policy
Recognizing the utility of technology development in childrens’ education, the NEP has appropriately brought about the plan to increase the engagement of digital technologies. Also, the policy envisages to involve the upcoming newer technologies like Artificial Intelligence in further improving the education system. Use of digital technology (DT) has been found to benefit not only the students but teachers too. For the students, DT can help (i) in improving the knowledge and skills in specific school subjects, (ii) provide opportunities to develop a range of skills like organization skills, creativity, critical thinking skills, etc., (iii) special needs children and low-achieving students to improve their skills. On the other hand, DT provides teachers with more resources, improves their efficiency in lesson planning and preparation, and for successful delivery of lessons (Timotheou et al., 2023). Students who are not able to attend some of the classes due to illness or other reasons will be able to go through the recordings of the classes or pre-recorded lectures. Also, digital tools can help in reducing the language barriers between the teacher and student, especially, if a student’s home language or mother tongue is different from the medium of instruction in school.
Limitations and Challenges
One of the limitations of the NEP is its major and predominant focus on school-based education. Home environment plays an important role in academic achievement ((Lehrl et al., 2020) as well as in social-emotional competence (Li et al., 2023). It has been found to be associated with cognitive outcomes of the pre-school children (Biedinger, 2011). In the NEP, the active involvement of parents has been mentioned mainly through parent-teacher meetings, incentivizing parents to send children to school or using technology-based interventions to orient them during home-schooling. In our opinion, there is an additional need to focus more on the home-learning environment, as it can help in the optimum educational achievement of (and by) the students.
Even though technology can play an important role in improving the skills and knowledge of students, the presence of digital divide in the country can pose a major challenge to this initiative. The National Statistical Organisation conducted a Survey on Digital divide in India and found that internet access was available in 43% of homes in cities while only 15% in rural areas had internet access (“NSO Survey Finds Big Rural-Urban Divide in Computer, Internet Use,” 2019). While the NEP mentions the use of television, radio, etc., to improve access till the digital divide is reduced to a manageable level, the Government should consider taking initiatives or innovative steps to increase the access to education through technologies by creating some infrastructure for this purpose.
Conclusions
To conclude, the NEP is a welcome change inculcating a holistic view focussed on improving not only the academic performance, but also developing the foundational skills of the students. Though there appear to be certain challenges and limitations to the conceptual development and practical implementation of NEP, it still carries potential on being a breakthrough for the education system of the country.