Written by: Dr Amit Mishra
“Education means enabling the mind to find out that ultimate truth which emancipates us from the bondage of dust and gives us the wealth of not things but of inner light, not of power but of love, making this truth it’s even and giving expression to it” Rabindra Nath Tagore
The Draft of New Education Policy 2019
- The New Education Policy (NEP) draft, 2019, recommends the reorganizing of the school syllabus and pedagogy in a new “5+3+3+4 pattern” with pillars of “Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability”.
- The draft designed for NEP aims the expansion of the Right to Education (RTE) motive to deliver the vision of education pronounced in this policy and to prepare students in the best possible way to compete in the 21st Century.
Education means Knowledge. Indian society has always accorded honor to Education. Attaining this knowledge, a child develops into a good human being and the blossoming of an ideal society takes place. It’s vital for business owners and entrepreneurs to be educated, if not higher, basic qualifications related to the running of their businesses are required, but it’s not essential. With such a large population to support, today education has become an important service to boost technological innovations that have led to job creation in the form of Start-ups and other business opportunities in India.
Education is an important tool to help develop core human values like honesty, punctuality, discipline, giving respect to elders, etc. in the child, youth, men and women. Also, it facilitates skills for career development in arts, science, law, finance, management, and business to the growing youth. Therefore, it is contemplated as an essential goal to be attained in due course of time by every developed Nation.
Under the leadership of ISRO chief Dr. Kasturirangan, a plan was asked to prepare to improve the standard of education in India. The NEP-2019 has focused on skill development among students and to reach a maximum number of students from different backgrounds belonging to urban and rural. A committee was made in June 2017 which finally submitted the draft on 31st May 2019 in New Delhi to the newly elected ministers Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Union Human Resource Development Minister, and Shri Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, Minister of State for HRD.
The government has not accepted the recommendation of the three languages formula including the Hindi Language to be taught in the entire Nation rather has made it flexible. After the transfer of power in 1947, India gave itself a constitution which came into force in 1950. The great hopes and fundamental changes were expected in the system of education. However, still, the struggle does not seem to end as the unemployment rate has reached its maximum at 6.1% while girl’s education remains a great challenge for society.
How to revolutionize our education system to overcome the major issues?
The major issues include the intellectual assessment on the basis of marking system which has harmed our education system in recent years a lot. Parents and students both in the race of gaining marks have led to the loss of creativity, cognitive abilities, analytical skills, intelligence, etc. There is no development of Personality. Even the student’s having the degree of highest reputation doesn’t develop the thought process or can make a critical analysis of any topic like culture, religion, history, etc. Does that put a question mark on the system? It simply reflects the lacunae of the system where the youngsters are not acquainted with the outer world during their studies. Also, education requires up gradation with respect to technique, quality, and content. The online accessibility of every citizen for their comments and transparency of institutions are some of the other issues to be dealt with.
Salient features of NEP 2019
Now the ideas of “higher secondary” or “junior college” will be eliminated. Classes 11 and 12 are going to be considered an integral part of the secondary school. The committee has given a proposal of a modular board examination system reorganized to test only core concepts, principles, critical thinking, and other higher-order skills in each subject. The focus of the new education would be on, “experiential learning within each subject, and explorations of relations among different subjects, will be encouraged and emphasized despite the introduction of more specialized subjects and subject teachers”. The other major focus would undertake “interactive and fun classrooms, which develops questioning abilities, with creative, collaborative, and exploratory activities for in-depth and more experiential learning”. New apex bodies, Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog, and The National Research Foundation are being planned to work in coordination of the education bodies and for creating a strong research foundation after the college education.
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With the implementation of NEP-2019, to equalize educational opportunity, an overhaul of the system of planning and the management of education, should be made sincerely to accelerate the growth of National economy as the reconstruction of education is not an easy task!
