Yesterday the New Education Policy was announced by the Government of India
Decoding the New Education Policy
The Primary & Major Change Is Pre-Primary Education
From the age group 3-6, it is now a formal part of school education.
The second change is doing away with the 10+2 systems.
We can say that the 10+2 system totally overlooked the way a student’s mind developed, and thus made for a poor learning system. The new system is 5+3+3+4.
The New Initial Stage Is Supposedly Meant To Be “Age Fluid”.
Age is not a factor, as long as you are within the age group 3-8. The guiding principle recommends that during the groundwork stage there should be no textbook-based education. Instead, play-based and activity-based education.
It also lays stress on introducing a multiplicity of new “stimuli” to force children’s brains to develop in a holistic manner. These stimuli include music (classical or modern, both singing and listening), art (regional, national, sketching, etc.), literature (folk tales, literature from the region, and nationwide quality authors, both modern and classical).
This is a huge exit from the present system.
The new stress on the arts is outstanding.
A New Bilingual Policy Is Introduced At The Start
Students who learn languages are shown to have much better cognitive abilities than those who do not. The new pattern makes all students study 2 languages right from the beginning.
One of these is the mother tongue so that it is preserved and given its rightful place. The second language may be different according to region and requirements.
The three language policy remains, and will be enhanced further.
The Final Changes
The final changes to primary education are the incorporation of “anganwadis” into schools and changing them from health workers to full-scale capable teachers. There is a full integration of people-skills, through a multiplicity of things like weekly assemblies and daily show-and-tells.
This improves the speaking ability in which Indian students have in the past been dreadful at.
New extras include group reading of stories, education on morality and ethics, puzzle-solving of various types, etc. to make sure a child has a notably better development.
Students who fall at the back are not left out, as an alternative the teachers are required to identify and help them, as studies suggest that students who fall back early almost never get better.
The “Preparatory stage” lays importance on changing from a more informal style in the Foundation stage, to a more proper textbook oriented education, in the Middle stage.
It is a bridge stage which usually happens in IGCSE studies.
Policy emphasizes that all technical education must take place in the native language first. This is because students who study in their mother tongue have an obvious lead over those who learn in English.
The policy also has a report on why the stress on English has hurt Indians a lot. The preparatory stage keeps focus on arts, and expects students to fully expand other skills further than the “textbook education”.
The policy stresses on doing away with the so-called “co-curricular activities” It aspires to integrate them into the core curriculum. This makes PE, yoga, art, music, a central part of the education. It also requires that every learner concentrates on at least one of these subjects.
Another New Notion
It is the selection of the most excellent students to help the most terrible students.
The Third Stage Is The “Middle Stage”
Now comes the time to start a fully formal education.
Subjects start splitting from broad versions into more comprehensive subjects (like science – physics + chemistry + biology).
Students at this point will slowly start to also learn technical subjects in English. The idea is that students will be able to reflect in their mother tongue (which has a lot of advantages), while being able to comprehend and present thoughts in English.
Ultimately The Final Stage Is The “High Stage”.
The student’s mind starts judgment in “the bigger picture” mode.
To uphold this, students are allowed to unreservedly select courses and specialize. They are still required to appreciate and include art courses, as this is supreme to their abilities, apart from the final courses they choose.
Some important courses that come over the 12 years comprise of: course on moral principles and moral values, Indian languages and their history and regional text.
School Administration System
The next most important changes come to the school administration system. Schools can now form “complexes”. A complex is made of nearby schools. Complexes are then given funds and other resources, like teachers. These assets may then be split up among the schools as necessary.
This is important because some types of teachers are moderately rare, and thus it provides optimal exploitation of resources. Sometimes other possessions like libraries may also be shared. The accurate facts of what is shared will differ depending on the schools and their locality.
The Next Set Of Changes Is Aimed At Teachers
The main objective is to improve the payment of teachers and their status in society. It recognizes that teachers are already heavily burdened with a lot of work, so no government work may be offloaded onto teachers.
Better and stricter standards of education are set. Teachers are required to “re-educate” themselves by joining workshops and upgrading their knowledge.
Teacher education will steadily be encouraged into multidisciplinary colleges and universities. By 2030, the qualification for teaching will be four-year integrated B.Ed. degree that teaches a variety of information content and pedagogy.
Inferior stand-alone Teacher Education Institutions across the country will be shut down as soon as possible. New teachers will have to register with authority, and then will be quickly integrated into a school complex.
The Major Changes Come To The Testing System
The new system will be managed by the National Testing Agency (which was newly set up in 2017 for entrance exams). They will be conducting the tests, and the new tests will be more like aptitude tests. They will de-emphasize rote learning, instead of encouraging an understanding of the subject.
The policy claims that by 2020, all schools will have internet-connected computers for some degree of Digitization, by allowing for continuous evaluation through computers.
Board exams in the 10th and 12th will not be there. Instead, we have exams in 3rd, 5th, and 8th called Census exams.
The idea is to reduce the importance of Board exams.
This policy also stands for better recognition of “top talent” students.
For e.g. if a student is really good, then they will be attending extra classes in summer to improve their performance. Top students will tutor the weak students who have a hard time coping.
There is also new stress on Olympiads aimed to improve India’s ranks in international competitions.
The RTE Act Sees Some Changes
The RTE act will be unlimited to the full period of school, from 3-18 years of age and therefore twill have to be re-framed.
Private Institutions: will have to endure some changes to have a similar system, so that they too can reach out to all students. The main changes are how fees are regulated. Fees needs to be streamlined, and can’t be illogically high.
Schools will now also be accredited and synchronized: A structure and strategy for ensuring school safety and security of children will be developed, and will be made a part of the eligibility conditions for a school.
Every principal and teacher will be made conscious of the necessities of the applicable Acts, Rules, Regulations, etc. linking to child rights, and what constitutes their contravention, by including a module in the teachers’/principals’ education/training programmes and review courses.
Alternative forms of schools like gurukulas, patashalas, and madrassas will be encouraged, as long as they follow an updated program and are fully apparent.
The first changes will be implemented by 2020, with most major changes being in place by 2022.
Comparison Of The Old With The New
The existing system failed in 2 ways:
- Languages were poorly incorporated.
- The old system failed in its testing procedure.
- NCF (2005) laid an important spotlight on removing rote learning, and encouraging application based on a system.
- The 10th-grade NCERT textbook for science is a witness to that.
But the system was unsuccessful, because tests only cared about how well a student could mug up and throw up subjective details.
The new policy tries to do away with this, but how much will improve remains to be seen.
Incorporation Of “Extra Curricular” Subjects
Many schools in fact refused to teach these subjects, taking into account that they were a waste of time. The new policy makes them a core part of the education system, so there should be an improvement in integration.
CONS:
- The draft lacks operational knowledge and does not offer insights into how the policy will be funded.
- The draft is progressive, open-minded, and wide-ranging trying to copy the western pattern of education. However, in India, the challenge of any new policy is the implementation part.
- It is a very well thought out work, based on ground realities. A lot of learning from the western education is included, while also taking ideas from our own culture and historic richness. But is there unity among states to go about this policy without bickering?
- There are too many bodies/authorities/councils in the process and it is difficult to comprehend how they will interrelate with each other? I just hope that it does not create mayhem and does not become a case of old wine in a new bottle.
- Various languages of learning and differentiated instructions should be used in classrooms. Are Indian school teachers ready for this? Do they have the infrastructure and will private schools go for them. WHAT ABOUT RURAL AREAS?
- There is no mention of home learning.
- No scholarships are specified for research projects TO STOP BRAIN DRAIN?
- Students should be made aware that examinations are an attempt to appreciate their strengths and weakness and outline where they need to put more effort and NOT A JUDGEMENT of their capabilities. This cannot happen when there is a fixed syllabus.
- So stress should be on developing Integrated Curriculum instead of Subject-based curriculum at least till grade 8 because most real-life problems are not constrained to a particular subject. There is a need for the application of knowledge on numerous subjects at the same time.
- The difficulty with the new NEP could be:
a] Non-availability of teachers for teaching three languages.
b] The focus has been made to teach students the Indian regional language by introducing three language policies. It can go wrong as students are more interested to learn foreign languages like German, French rather than Konkani or Telugu.
c] Lack of Infrastructure is the biggest hindrance: These will again provide differentiation between government schools and private schools. Therefore the ultimate goal of equality will vanish.
d] Non-availability of courses in regional language: Time and again there have been numerous debates to carry out instruction courses in regional language which has not been made achievable due to the realistic confines.
The ideas proposed are progressive, but there could be roadblocks in their implementation relating to funding requirements, infrastructure, and governance architecture.
Students today are not able to learn MS office (Basics of a computer) in school and the government is going to implement coding courses from Standard 6th. [A straight pick from IGSCE SYLLABUS]
Making rules and regulations is easy but implementation is difficult!!!
Though the thought process is good I don’t know how feasible it will be in the present scenario.
The present education policy of not detaining any students up to VIII and internal marks has already spoiled the calibre of one generation. I sincerely hope this policy does not do further harm because I feel it is being implemented in haste without first upgrading every school and college, with trained teachers for this type of discourse and infrastructural changes.
Art Of Teaching 
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