National Education Policy- Transforming Young India for Better Future

"The National Education Policy 2020 focuses on the education and skills needed for the youth of 21st century India. We have to equip our students with the skills of the 21st century.

What will these 21st century skill be? These will be Critical thinking-Creativity- Collaboration- Curiosity and Communication." - Prime Minister Narendra Modi

What Is the National Education Policy?

In 2020, the Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. This new policy replaces the 34-year-old National Policy on Education, which was framed in 1986. The National Education Policy 2020 is intended to make way for transformational reforms in educational system in India. This reform is expected to develop India into a global superpower of knowledge.

Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Education and Skill Development Minister, has urged citizens to join in the Citizen Survey for National Curriculum Framework to develop a new curriculum. The NEP 2020 is in line with a dynamic National Curriculum Framework that will play a major role to achieve the goal of Viksit Bharat. The NEP 2020 is important for integrating the socio-cultural dimensions with the next generation of activity-based and analytics-oriented thinking.

Involvment of All Stakeholders for the National Curriculum Framework

The Ministry of Education prepared the National Curriculum Framework with the active participation by the public through an online public consultation survey for designing of syllabus, textbooks and other instructional materials.

The ministry has developed website and mobile app for the execution of survey. It included district-level consultations, app-based surveys and state-level consultations through focus groups and steering committee throughout the States and Union Territories to reach out the stakeholders like parents, Anganwadi workers, teachers and students at all level and to collect their views about the future of school education, early childhood education, teacher education and adult education. Stakeholders are all requested to participate in this online survey being conducted in 23 languages, including the languages in the VIII Schedule of our Constitution.

Initiatives Launched by Government to Celebrate the Two Years of NEP 2020

On July 29, 2020, Government of India launched the NEP 2020, aiming to transform education system in India in alignment with the futuristic needs and also making it "rooted in Indianness". The Union education ministry has already implemented several recommendations of the NEP 2020 in the last two years in school and higher education.

Initiatives launched included the national innovation and entrepreneurship policy for schools to promote a learning environment for creativity, ideation, innovation, problem solving and entrepreneurship skills of students are cultivated.

The Union home minister launched the government's Indian Knowledge System (IKS) during the event. Two announcements were made during the event: to launch the 'Kalashala initiative' in 750 schools and the promotion of 75 "Bharatiya games" in schools. It envisages educating children about India's various art forms and helping them discover the country's rich cultural heritage. Further, the government announced that Indian games will be introduced in schools.

The ministry announced that it will be launching more than 100 futuristic higher education programmes like automation in industries, infrastructure connectivity, electronics manufacturing, digital emerging technologies and research and development. These programmes will be developed same time with the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF). Also, the ministry announced a public consultation survey in 23 languages seeking inputs and suggestions for the development of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) based on which the content of school books will be decided.

To provide advancement to students and help them achieve higher education and more livelihood opportunities, the Governemnt of India has announced a partnership with Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU). Through the partnership, 32 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTI), 3,000+ Government Industrial Training Institutes (ITI), 500+ Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKK) and nearly 300 Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) will be associated with IGNOU as registration centres.

Benefits of the Policy for All

• Compared with previous policy, students can choose their subjects of their choice and they can study according to their comfort.

• Students will get maximum global prospects and better research pathways.

• Students will be better prepared future needs.

• Teachers will have more opportunites for progress in their professional career and more global opportunities.

• New areas for research will open for teachers, and they will have more autonomy.

• The quality of educational institutions will be enhanced, and it will be manged professionally and with more autonomy. This will encourage global cooperation and opportunities for better rankings, ensuring India as a major knowledge power in the world.