Context: The National Education Policy, India’s third such policy since Independence was cleared by the Union Cabinet in July 2020. The NEP promised a sweeping reset of both school and higher education.
Relevance of the Topic: Mains: National Education Policy (NEP) 2020: Key facts, Progress and Challenges.
National Education Policy (NEP) 2020
- The NEP 2020 outlines the vision of the new education system of India. It replaces the previous National Policy on Education of 1986.
- The NEP 2020 is based on five key pillars: Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability.
Read More: National Education Policy 2020
Five years of National Education Policy
1. Key reforms which have been undertaken:
- Changing School Curriculum: The 10+2 system has been replaced with a new structure- foundational (pre-primary to class 2), preparatory (classes 3-5), middle (6-8), and secondary (9-12). In 2023, the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) laid out the learning outcomes and competencies for each stage.
- New Textbooks: NCERT has produced new textbooks for classes 1-8 based on the new framework. E.g., Social Science is now taught as a single book covering history, geography, political science, and economics, replacing separate textbooks for each subject. New books for classes 9-12 are expected next.
- Early Childhood Care and Education: NEP aims to make pre-primary learning universal by 2030. The Women and Child Development Ministry has issued a National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) curriculum; NCERT’s Jaadui Pitara learning kits are already in use.
- Minimum Age for Admission: Delhi, Karnataka, and Kerala will soon enforce the minimum age of six for class 1 entry.
- National focus for Foundational Skills: NIPUN Bharat, launched in 2021, seeks to ensure every child can read and do basic math by the end of class 3. A recent government survey found average scores were 64% for language and 60% for math.
- Credit-based flexibility: NEP suggested the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC). The National Credit Framework (NCrF) has been jointly developed by different institutions including CBSE, NCERT, the Ministry of Education, DGT, and the Ministry of Skill Development.
- NCrF brings flexibility to school students, where learning hours (including skill-based ones) translate into credits. CBSE invited schools to be part of an NCrF pilot last year.
- UGC rules published in 2021 allowed students to earn and store credits digitally, even across institutions, making it possible to move between courses or exit and re-enter. The system allows students to earn a certificate after one year, a diploma after two, or complete a four-year multidisciplinary degree.
- Common test for college entry: NEP 2020 had suggested that multiple college entrance exams should be replaced with a single national test. Common University Entrance Test (CUET) introduced in 2022 is a key route to undergraduate admissions.
- Indian campuses abroad and vice versa:
- IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, and IIM Ahmedabad have set up international campuses in Zanzibar, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai respectively.
- University of Southampton recently opened in India, after two other foreign universities at GIFT City, Gujarat.
- Another 12 foreign universities are in the process of being approved under UGC regulations, plus two more at GIFT City.
2. Key reforms under implementation:
- Changes in Board exams:
- NEP envisages less high-stakes board exams. Starting 2026, CBSE plans to allow class 10 students to sit for board exams twice a year. E.g., Karnataka has experimented with the new pattern.
- The NEP idea of offering all subjects at two levels (standard and higher) is limited to class 10 math, which CBSE introduced in 2019-20.
- Holistic report cards: PARAKH, a unit under NCERT, has developed progress cards that go beyond marks, and include peer and self-assessment. But some school boards are yet to make the shift.
- Slow progress for four-year UG degrees: Central universities are rolling out NEP’s idea of four-year undergraduate degrees with multiple exit options, and Kerala has followed.
- Mother tongue in classrooms: NEP encourages the use of mother tongue as the medium of instruction till at least class 5. CBSE has asked schools to begin this from pre-primary to class 2, with classes 3-5 retaining the option of staying or switching. NCERT is working on textbooks in more Indian languages.
3. Lack of Progress:
- Issues in Teacher Education overhaul:
- The National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education which was due in 2021, is yet to be released.
- The four-year integrated B.Ed course has been announced under the Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP), but colleges offering existing programmes like Bachelor of Elementary Education (B.El.Ed) are pushing back.
- UGC’s proposed successor delayed: A 2018 draft bill proposed scrapping the UGC Act and replacing it with an umbrella Higher Education Commission of India (HECI). NEP formalised the idea that HECI would handle regulation, funding, accreditation, and academic standards across higher education, excluding medical and legal. But the Education Ministry is still in the process of drafting the Bill.
- No breakfast in schools: NEP recommends breakfast along with midday meals. But in 2021, the Finance Ministry rejected the Education Ministry’s proposal to add breakfast for pre-primary and elementary classes.
- Policy divide between Centre and states: Some states have pushed back against key NEP provisions.
- Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal have refused to sign MoUs with the Centre to set up PM-SHRI schools, citing clauses that require full adoption of NEP.
- Three-language formula: NEP proposes three languages in school, at least two of them must be Indian. Certain states like Tamil Nadu (which follows a Tamil-English model) sees this as an attempt to impose Hindi.
- Kerala and Tamil Nadu argue that since education is on the Concurrent List, the Centre cannot mandate these changes unilaterally. The Centre has withheld Samagra Shiksha funds from these states, saying the money is tied to NEP-linked reforms.
Other challenges include providing better training for Anganwadi workers, and improving infrastructure and teaching quality in early education centres.