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Draft National Education Policy 2019

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June 04, 2019

Why in news?

The draft of New National Education Policy has been recently submitted by the Committee led by the Chairman Dr. Kasturirangan on education policy.

What is the new education policy for?

  • The extant National Policy on Education, 1986 modified in 1992 required changes to meet the contemporary and futuristic needs of India's large youth population.
  • A New Education Policy is designed to meet the changing dynamics of the requirements in terms of quality education, innovation and research.
  • The policy aims at making India a knowledge superpower by equipping students with the necessary skills and knowledge.
  • It also focusses on eliminating the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry.
  • The Draft Policy is built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability.

What are the key changes proposed?

  • Ministry - The committee has proposed to rename the Ministry of Human Resource Development as Ministry of Education (MoE).
  • Curriculum - In school education, a major reconfiguration of curricular and pedagogical structure was proposed.
  • The policy calls for an Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as an integral part of school education.
  • A 5+3+3+4 curricular and pedagogical structure based on cognitive and socio-emotional developmental stages of children was proposed.
  • It consists of -
    1. Foundational Stage (age 3-8 yrs): 3 years of pre-primary plus Grades 1-2
    2. Preparatory Stage (8-11 years): Grades 3-5
    3. Middle Stage (11-14 years): Grades 6-8
    4. Secondary Stage (14-18 years): Grades 9-12
  • The policy also seeks to reduce content load in school education curriculum.
  • There will be no hard separation of learning areas in terms of curricular, co-curricular or extra- curricular areas.
  • All subjects, including arts, music, crafts, sports, yoga, community service, etc will be part of the curricular.
  • Thus, schools will be re-organized into school complexes.
  • The policy promotes active pedagogy to focus on the development of core capacities and life skills, including 21st century skills.
  • RTE Act - The committee recommends Extension of Right to Education Act 2009 to cover children of ages 3 to 18 (currently, 6-14).
  • Teacher education - The committee proposes for massive transformation in teacher education.
  • It calls for shutting down sub-standard teacher education institutions.
  • It proposes 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.
  • Higher education - A restructuring of higher education institutions with three types of higher education institutions was proposed -
  1. Type 1: Focused on world-class research and high quality teaching
  2. Type 2: Focused on high quality teaching across disciplines with significant contribution to research
  3. Type 3: High quality teaching focused on undergraduate education
  • This will be driven by two Missions -Mission Nalanda & Mission Takshashila.
  • There will be re-structuring of Undergraduate programs such as BSc, BA, BCom, BVoc of 3 or 4 years duration and having multiple exit and entry options.
  • Institution - A new apex body Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog is proposed.
  • This is to enable a holistic and integrated implementation of all educational initiatives and programmatic interventions.
  • The body will also coordinate efforts between the Centre and states.
  • The National Research Foundation, an apex body, is proposed for creating a strong research culture.
  • It will help build research capacity across higher education.
  • The four functions of Standard Setting, Funding, Accreditation and Regulation will be separated and conducted by independent bodies.
  • National Higher Education Regulatory Authority will be the only regulator for all higher education including professional education.
  • The policy proposes to create an accreditation eco-system led by a revamped NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council).
  • Professional Standard Setting Bodies for each area of professional education was proposed.
  • UGC is to be transformed to Higher Education Grants Commission (HEGC).
  • The private and public institutions will be treated on par, and education will remain a 'not for profit' activity.
  • Besides the above, the committee also recommended several new policy initiatives for -
    1. promoting internationalization of higher education
    2. strengthening quality open and distance learning
    3. technology integration at all levels of education
    4. facilitating adult and lifelong learning
    5. enhancing participation of under-represented groups
    6. eliminating gender, social category and regional gaps in education outcomes
  • Language - Promotion of Indian and classical languages and setting up three new National Institutes for Pali, Persian and Prakrit were proposed.
  • Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI) has been recommended.
  • The policy called for the proper implementation of the three-language formula (dating back to 1968) in schools across the country.
  • Accordingly, students in Hindi-speaking states should learn a modern Indian language, apart from Hindi and English.
  • In non-Hindi-speaking states, students will have to learn Hindi along with the regional language and English.
  • The controversial three language provision was, however, dropped after protests against it in many states.
  • The draft was revised by the committee making the changes in this regard. Click here to know more

 

Source: PIB

1 comments
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Wilfred Khyllep 5 years

COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2019


By W.Khyllep IAS (Retd) Commissioner and Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya and former Director of Higher and Technical Education

                The draft Education Policy 2019 has been prepared by the drafting committee after taking into consideration all aspects including the suggestions by eminent personalities and different groups and organisations. I appreciate the hard work of all the members to produce such a lengthy document which contains all details relating to school education, higher education etc. However I would like to make some suggestions to further improve the document.

            Regarding the name of the Ministry, there is no objection to the proposed change of name. However, if you want to build a strong work force in India and supply the same to other countries you have to cover and include all branches of education right from school education, college education, university education, general education, technical education, professional education, including medical education, vocational education and skill oriented education in the policy document. When we talk about human resource development, we include human resource supply and placement including training, as people grow in the service. But when we give the name of the ministry as Ministry of Education, there is no concept of placement and training and the products from our educational institutions have to find job on their own. Is this the very purpose of education? I leave it to the members of the drafting committee to think carefully and give the appropriate name of the Ministry.

            The Policy does not make any mention about the enhancement of creative and innovative thinking which is very important for the people of our country. 21st century is the century for the creative and innovative minds, where a lot of creativity and innovations are required if we really have to move forward in the field of education and become a strong and vibrant nation. It is therefore suggested that this statement may be included in the policy document.

Part 1 – School Education

  • The policy should clearly mention that without all infrastructures in place including library and laboratories, no opening permission shall be given. Without qualified teachers and good result in the Board examination i.e. Central Board or State Board, no recognition should be given.
  • Hindi language should be introduced up to class VIII only in tribal areas.
  • Creativity should be encouraged since childhood right from the start of schooling.
  • Government is to govern, facilitate and monitor but not to manage. Private schools should be encouraged but there should not be any profit motive while running any school or educational institution. There should not be too much regulation on private institutions.    Encourage learning of science and mathematics at the early age of schooling.
  •             The three language formula should continue to exist. There should not be any imposition of Hindi or any language to the students whether at the primary, secondary or higher level as it may affects the unity of India.
  •             Encourage foreign language in secondary schools as this will encourage the students and help our system to supply our products from our education institution to work in overseas.
  • Choice of foreign languages i.e. French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese etc by the students should be encouraged at the school level and higher level with proper incentives.
  • Interactive style of teaching at the lower level may not be possible because small children at the pre-primary level will not be able to interact. This may not be a good approach toward learning and teaching at lower level or initial stage of studies. A style of teaching which can make the beginners interesting has to be adopted.
  • 5+3+3+4 system will not work. It is too heavy for the kids i.e. beginners. Formal classroom teaching with textbook should be from class I onward. First three years i.e. pre nursery, nursery and KG are fundamental stages only. As such, 3+5+3+4 system is desirable.
  • NCF is good but there should be no frequent change of textbooks.
  • Fees to be linked with quality of education given by private institutions.

Part 2 – Higher Education

  • It is good to bring back the Indian tradition of the University of Takshashila and Nalanda but if we follow now the then system of higher education, our products will not be able to compete with the rest of the world. This has to be look into with utmost care.
  • Institutions who sell their degrees should be penalised and closed. Stringent action against fake universities and colleges should be taken and such fake institutions should be close down.
  • Professional education should be encouraged and moved from mechanical learning habits to creative and innovative learning habits.
  • There should not be too much regulation on private institutions. Quality teacher training institutions should be allowed to exist to supplement the Government institutions as there is insufficient number of trained teachers in our country and the gap is too large.
  • Private B.Ed colleges should be allowed to exist and the fees structure should be commensurate with the quality of education they give.
  • Choice of foreign languages i.e. French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese etc by the students should be encouraged at the higher level with good incentives and scholarship. Our productive human capital creation or formation will improve tremendously in our country.

Part 3 – Additional Key focus areas

  • It is good that the education system up to class XII includes vocational education. It is also good that this holistic education allows the students to enter the world of work at this level. Such system has a special focus on rural and tribal areas. It is suggested that the focus should also be more on entrepreneurship at this level. As the students learn, they should be innovative, creative and enterprising as entrepreneurship spirit must grow in this century.

 

Part 4 – Transforming Education

  • The National Education Commission and State Education Commissions should consist of more experts in the field of education and research. More of these experts have to be included as members in these Commissions.

Even though the framers of the new policy want to transform our education system in the country, from the draft policy, there is no real transformation which I could foresee in the true sense of the term. The policy as a whole proposes to produce dependents and job seekers. In the past and at present, we continue to produce mostly job seekers from the schools and higher educational institutions. The policy should address this issue of educated unemployment by striking a balance between the job seekers and job creators while producing the products from different schools and higher educational institutions. This will enable the country to solve the problem of unemployment which is increasing day by day. That way we will be able to transform our education system in the country for the better future of our youth and save the country from the burden of unemployment and future wastage of human resource or human capital which is idle or unproductive due to unemployment.

I expect that my suggestions mention above will be accepted in true spirit and incorporate the same in the draft National Education Policy 2019 for the benefit of our children and youth of our beloved country.

IAS Parliament 5 years

Thank you for sharing your valuable thoughts, Sir

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