The New Education Policy (NEP), 2020, unveiled by the Centre last week, has been mostly welcomed by stakeholders. Amit Khare, secretary, Higher Education and Information and Broadcasting, explained to The Week, how the NEP, being rolled out after after three decades, will pan out over the next few years. Excerpts:
By when should we see the new education policy rolling out?
There are around 140 recommendations each for schools and higher education. So, the policy will be rolled out in phases. For the new degree system, we will have credit transfers and we have to create a credit storage. The credit bank should be ready by December. From academic year 2021, the flexible degrees will be introduced in the Institutes of Eminence (IOE) and state universities that wish to join.
In the schools, we need to have the curriculum framework ready for the first five years of the 5+3+3+4 system. The working groups have already been formed. Their reports should be submitted by next March and the new system can be introduced in a gradual manner by 2021 itself.
By 2023, the first batch of students should be taking the new board exams for Class X-XII.
However, for the next few years, both systems will continue in schools and colleges, so that students who are already studying in one system are not inconvenienced.
The National Education Technology Forum (NETF) should be set up by December and the Higher Education Commission Bill will be placed in the public domain by September end for the vice chancellors and academicians to make their responses. The National Research Foundation (NRF) should be ready by December.
Will the degree course be four years now on?
The Kasturirangan Committee was clear that the graduation course should be a four-year degree programme, leading to a one year masters and then, directly to PhD.
However, there is a large proportion of students who acquire a degree for employment. They are not interested in studying further. So, we proposed two degrees. There is a three-year programme, which allows for exits even earlier -– after the first year, with a certificate, after the second, with a diploma. For those who want to continue, the course continues to the fourth year.
The system is flexible and allows students to get back to education after a break. Even those who did the three-year degree can return for a post-graduation after collecting the required credits.
Ultimately, the system will be more on collecting credits and not on the strict first-year, second-year format. The courses will be modular.
Since, the new system will blur the strict differentiation between arts, science and commerce streams. Now on, the degree will be called a Bachelor or Liberal Arts and not a BA or BCom. The graduate might, therefore, say "I have a bachelor's degree with an honours in physics and a minor in music".
Will the pre-requisites for the entrance test for a professional course like medical (NEET) or engineering (JEE) change?
Yes. We already have the Common Aptitude Test( CAT) that doesn't distinguish between candidates on the basis of subjects in school or college. Other entrance tests will also prescribe a syllabus. It is up to the candidate on whether she studies for the syllabus through her school curriculum or by herself. These changes might take some time, though.
A huge policy overhaul will require massive funding. Can that be achieved without the private sector, specially now that the universalisation of education is extended to 18 years?
The financial aspects of the policy have been discussed at various levels within the government. Some parts of the policy are non financial, but many will require massive expenditure. Extending the mid-day meal and breakfast alone will run into thousands of crores of rupees. Upgrading school and college infrastructure will require funds, too. Even creating new online aids and educational channels will be costly. The aim is to have better targetting of funds wherever possible. The government also plans to increase the education spend to six per cent of the GDP from the existing 4.43 per cent (centre+states).
However, the Supreme Court had in 1992 laid down clearly that education is not for commerce but for public good. The private sector is welcome to join, but it cannot commercialise education. Profiteering will not be allowed. The surpluses have to be put back in the system. We will continue to control the fee structure.
For a 360 degree reorientation of education, human resources have to be in place. How long will it take to have a new army of teachers?
The policy is clear. Teaching needs to be of a certain quality. Teaching cannot be considered as a last option. It has to be treated as a respected profession. Presently, we will be introducing a four-year integrated course for teachers. We will also have to focus on re-training existing teachers.
Yes, we need huge capacity building here. Prime minister Narendra Modi has said education is about critical thinking and not rote learning.
What would you call the main stay of NEP 2020?
It is transformational, not incremental. The focus is on foundations. There is criticism that the policy is focussing more on the vocational aspect and less on academics.
I woudn't call the thrust vocational, but rather, on life skills. Today, we have huge dropout rates. While enrolment at the pre-primary level is almost 100 per cent, only 26 per cent of the youth population makes it to the graduation level. Similarly, there are huge dropouts after VIII, X and XII.
There are two aspects here. One is, the syllabus should be such that it shouldn't cause students to drop out of the system. We are even planning that for certain subjects like mathematics, schools will offer two levels, A and B at the +4 level. Because, if a student wants to get into statistics, why should he be forced through trignometry?
The other aspect here is not every student needs to reach the degree level. Yet, those who leave the system at any level should be equipped with life skills, or employability. This is for the student as well as for the country. Because their contribution to the GDP increases with skill enhancement.
We have 3.25 crore students enrolled for higher education, which will increase to six crore by 2035. In schools, there are 33 crore students. We cannot continue to have the one-size-fits-all policy.
Sceptics are concerned about the implementation of the policy. How will you provide quality teaching when the reality today is that many schools are not more than a shed?
Equity has been a major focus of the policy. Technology-enabled systems are great levellers. In a conventional system, it might take more than a lifetime to see every school equipped with just a good quality laboratory. However, through virtual labs, we can reach out much better. IIT Madras has already made some virtual labs. So, while a student may not be able to do an experiment herself, she can see it virtually, at least. If Boeing can have simulators for training pilots, virtual experiments can cannot be so difficult for teaching students.
The NETF seeks to look at technology solutions in association with leading software companies and academic institutions.
The question of equity is very important for us, we are aware that even technology-enabled solutions may not bridge the gap if schools and students cannot access these technologies.
