by Bhat Manzoor
To meet the challenges of the rapid changes in the knowledge landscape and future of jobs, India recently launched a very progressive National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 for the 21st century, which is holistic in nature and culminates the traditional Indian system (as it was based in Nalanda) and the modern education system. The foundational pillars of this policy are access, equity, quality, affordability and accountability.
The National Education Policy (NEP-2020) is not only the new education policy framed and implemented in India after a gap of 34 years but is also the first education policy of the world in the twenty-first century that aims to revamp all aspects of the education sector in India by fostering revolutionary changes in infrastructural development, curricular reforms, pedagogical innovation, augmentation of human resources, administrative reforms, institutional governance, restructuring of the evaluation and examination system, harnessing research innovation, skill development, community outreach activities, student exchange programmes, industry-academia interaction, innovation and start-up incubation, promotion of open learning, e-governance and workflow automation.
The vision of NEP-2020 focuses on strengthening India’s educational infrastructure and making quality education accessible and affordable to every citizen, thus enabling the creation of a vibrant and knowledgeable society. All the three pillars on which higher education stands, namely the teachers who teach, students who are taught and the curriculum that is taught, are going to witness a paradigm transformation under the auspices of NEP-2020.
This policy aims to foster creative, analytical and critical thinking among students so that they become well-rounded, engaged, productive and contributing citizens for building an equitable, inclusive and progressive society and thereby achieve the goals of education in the real sense.
The new National Education Policy envisages an education system that contributes to an equitable and vibrant knowledge society by providing high-quality education to all. The policy will facilitate an education system that promotes recognition, identification and fostering of the unique capabilities of each student by sensitising teachers as well as parents to support each student’s holistic development in both academic and non-academic spheres.
The author can be mailed at bhatmanzoor6366@gmail.com
