The National Education Policy 2020 Is Set To Change How India Learns

In the last few years, education as a sector in India has seen some serious disruption through technology. Multiple start-ups have come up, trying to solve one problem too many, which extends beyond just the lack of accessibility. So when the government brought about the third National Education Policy a few days ago, there was obvious cheer.

While start-ups have diligently been doing their part, some changes at the policy level have long been necessary. For one, among a few of the things proposed was the big change in how students have had to choose streams in Grade 11. As per the NEP 2020, the distinction between streams such as Science, Commerce and Humanities or even curricular and non-curricular, will be done away with. Schools will have to start imparting vocational education from Grade 6.

The interesting point was that students would also be allowed to choose coding as a subject from Grade 6.

This comes as the need for skilful coders is on the rise, as technology becomes more and more a way of life.

Doing away with streams has been a big talking point in the Indian education system for long, with the social stigma attached and a general idea that better marks mean choosing science, with commerce and humanities coming second and third respectively. With such a change, students would not only be free from that psychological burden, but it would also allow them a chance to pursue what excites them. The system so far has been so rigid that often both students and parents are unaware of the diverse and varied employment opportunities that are available to them.

According to a survey conducted by online career counselling platform Mindler last year, 93 per cent of the roughly 10,000 respondents said they were aware of only seven career paths - engineering, medicine, accounts and finance, design, computer applications and information technology, law and management.

Opening up in terms of subjects, combined with the four-year multidisciplinary undergraduate programme will likely change that.

College Programmes

There would be multiple entries and exit options for the undergraduate programme. It will include a certificate after one year, an advanced diploma after two years, a Bachelor’s degree after three years and a Bachelor’s degree with research after four years.

The policy also talks about an Academic Bank of Credit, which allows students to transfer their credits depending upon progress from one institution to another. It gives much-needed flexibility to students who can experiment per their interests and can also perhaps reduce dropouts to a large extent.

It also states that the postgraduate programmes can either be one- or two-years long.

To take care of all these, multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities, on par with the IITs and IIMs, are also being planned.

School Education Format

The policy aims at changing the format of school education, taking a 5-3-3-4 route, a complete diversion from the existing 10+2 system, which ideally means that the pre-school education of today would fall under the ambit of formal education.

This also means that the high-pressure board exams that have often been despised by students will have lesser importance going forward. Even report cards in schools will be different, with self-assessment, peer assessment and teacher assessment, changing the way how currently marks in academics mean everything.

Each student is supposed to be equipped with at least one core skill when he/she passes the Grade 12 exams.

A welcome change from the present pressure cooker-like system where a few marks in the final boards seem like the end of the world, one would hope that all these changes would also result in lesser stress for students. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau said that there were more than 10,000 student suicides in 2018 alone.

Apart from the above, changes such as a single entrance examination after Grade 12 for admission into higher educational institutes and a single regulator for all streams except legal and medicine have also been proposed.

All these sweeping changes, coupled with the constant push from start-ups in changing the face of education, would likely result in happier students and a more skilled workforce. It is only a matter of time.

About the Author

Abhimanyu Saxena is the Co-Founder of Interview Bit and Scaler Academy