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Quick run through over draft of New Education Policy!- 6-Jun-2019
The committee led by the Chairman Dr. Kasturirangan submitted the draft of the New Education Policy to the new Union Human Resource Development Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank recently.
The Government of India had initiated the process of formulating a New Education Policy to meet the changes meted out in the education domain with regard to quality education, innovation and research, aiming to make India a knowledge superpower by equipping its students with the necessary skills and knowledge and to eliminate the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry.
The MHRD initiated an unprecedented collaborative, multi-stakeholder, multipronged, bottom- up people-centric, inclusive, participatory consultation process.
The committee had the arduous task of analysing and examining a humungous volume of suggestions, inputs, reports, and outcome documents that preceded its own efforts.
The idea is to bring out a vision document which will hold the test of time for at least another 20 years.
The Draft National Education Policy, 2019 is built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability.
In School Education, a major reconfiguration of curricular and pedagogical structure with Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as an integral part of school education is proposed.
The Committee also recommends Extension of Right to Education Act 2009 to cover children of ages 3 to 18.
The curricular and pedagogical structure based on cognitive and socio-emotional developmental stages of children:
Foundational Stage (age 3-8 yrs): 3 years of pre-primary plus Grades 1-2; Preparatory Stage (8-11 years): Grades 3-5; Middle Stage (11-14 years): Grades 6-8; and Secondary Stage (14-18 years): Grades 9-12. Schools will be re-organized into school complexes.
It also recommended to reduce content load in school education curriculum.
Further, it said that there will be no hard separation of learning areas in terms of curricular, co-curricular or extra- curricular areas and all subjects, including arts, music, crafts, sports, yoga, community service, etc. will be curricular.
It promotes active pedagogy that will focus on the development of core capacities: and life skills, including 21st century skills.
The committee proposed for massive transformation in Teacher Education by shutting down sub-standard teacher education institutions and moving all teacher preparation/education programmes into large multidisciplinary universities/colleges.
The 4- year integrated stage-specific B.Ed. programme will eventually be the minimum degree qualification for teachers.
In higher education, a restructuring of higher education institutions with three types of higher education institutions is proposed- Type 1: Focused on world-class research and high quality teaching; Type 2: Focused on high quality teaching across disciplines with significant contribution to research; Type 3: High quality teaching focused on undergraduate education. This will be driven by two Missions -Mission Nalanda & Mission Takshashila.
It will be re-structuring of Undergraduate programs (e.g. BSc, BA, BCom, BVoc) of 3 or 4 years duration and having multiple exit and entry options.
A new apex body Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog is proposed to enable a holistic and integrated implementation of all educational initiatives and programmatic interventions, and to coordinate efforts between the Centre and States.
The National Research Foundation, an apex body is proposed for creating strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.
The four functions of Standard setting, Funding, Accreditation and Regulation to be separated and conducted by independent bodies.
National Higher Education Regulatory Authority will regulate all higher education including professional education.
The private and public institutions will be treated on par and education will remain a not for profit activity.
Several new policy initiatives for promoting internationalization of higher education, strengthening quality open and distance learning, technology integration at all levels of education, adult and lifelong learning and initiatives to enhance participation of underrepresented groups, and eliminate gender, social category and regional gaps in education outcomes are recommended.
Promotion of Indian and Classical Languages and setting up three new National Institutes for Pali, Persian and Prakrit and an Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI) has been recommended.
The path breaking reforms recommended will bring about a paradigm shift by equipping our students, teachers and educational institutions.
