INDIA TODAY
From compulsory BEd as a minimum qualification for teaching to the duration of Under-graduation in India, National Educational Policy Chairman Dr Kasturirangan introduced changes before the HRD ministry.
The draft of National Educational Policy has been submitted to the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' and Minister of State for HRD, Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre in New Delhi by Committee led by the Chairman Dr. Kasturirangan on Friday May 31, 2019 in the presence of R. Subrahmanyam, Secretary Department of Higher Education and Rina Ray, Secretary Department of School Education & Literacy and other senior officials of the Ministry.
Aim of National Educational Policy
- To equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge
- To eliminate the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry
- The Draft National Education Policy, 2019 is built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability.
Background work
For this, the MHRD initiated an unprecedented collaborative, multi-stakeholder, multi-pronged, bottom-up people-centric, inclusive, participatory consultation process.
The extensive consultations were undertaken across multiple levels of online, expert and thematic, and from the grassroots ranging from the village, block, urban local bodies, district, state, zonal and the national level, provided an opportunity to every citizen to engage in this massive exercise.
Several in-person and in-depth deliberations across a wide spectrum of stakeholders were held.
Subsequently, a 'Committee for Evolution of the New Education Policy' under the Chairmanship of Late TSR Subramanian, Former Cabinet Secretary, was constituted, which submitted its report in May 2016. Based on this report, the ministry prepared 'Some Inputs for the Draft National Education Policy, 2016'.
Changes
1. The committee has proposed to rename MHRD as Ministry of Education (MoE).
2. In school education, a major reconfiguration of curricular and pedagogical structure with Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as an integral part of school education is proposed.
3. The committee also recommends Extension of Right to Education Act 2009 to cover children of ages 3 to 18. A 5+3+3+4 curricular and pedagogical structure based on cognitive and socio-emotional developmental stages of children: Foundational Stage (age 3-8 yrs): 3 years of pre-primary plus Grades 1-2; Preparatory Stage (8-11 years): Grades 3-5; Middle Stage (11-14 years): Grades 6-8; and Secondary Stage (14-18 years): Grades 9-12.
Schools will be re-organized into school complexes.
Schools will be re-organized into school complexes.
4. It also seeks to reduce the content load in the school education curriculum.
5. There will be no hard separation of learning areas in terms of curricular, co-curricular or extracurricular areas and all subjects, including arts, music, crafts, sports, yoga, community service, etc will be curricular.
6. It promotes active pedagogy that will focus on the development of core capacities: and life skills, including 21st-century skills.
7. The committee proposes for massive transformation in teacher education by shutting down sub-standard teacher education institutions and moving all teacher preparation/education programmes into large multidisciplinary universities/colleges.
8. The 4-year integrated stage-specific B.Ed. the programme will eventually be the minimum degree qualification for teachers.
9. In higher education, a restructuring of higher education institutions with three types of higher education institutions is proposed-
Type 1: Focused on world-class research and high-quality teaching
Type 2: Focused on high-quality teaching across disciplines with significant contribution to research;
Type 3: High-quality teaching focused on undergraduate education. This will be driven by two Missions -Mission Nalanda & Mission Takshashila.
10. There will be re-structuring of Undergraduate programs (e.g. BSc, BA, BCom, BVoc) of 3 or 4 years duration and having multiple exits and entry options.
11. A new apex body Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog is proposed to enable a holistic and integrated implementation of all educational initiatives and programmatic interventions and to coordinate efforts between the Centre and states.
12. The National Research Foundation, an apex body is proposed for creating a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.
13. The four functions of standard setting, Funding, Accreditation and Regulation to be separated and conducted by independent bodies: National Higher Education Regulatory Authority as the only regulator for all higher education including professional education.
14. Creation of accreditation eco-system led by revamped NAAC.
15. Professional Standard Setting Bodies for each area of professional education and UGC to transform to Higher Education Grants Commission (HEGC).
16. The private and public institutions will be treated on par and education will remain a 'not for profit' activity.
17. Several new policy initiatives for promoting the internationalization of higher education, strengthening quality open and distance learning, technology integration at all levels of education, adult and lifelong learning and initiatives to enhance participation of under-represented groups, and eliminate gender, social category and regional gaps in education outcomes were also recommended.
18. Promotion of Indian and classical languages and setting up three new National Institutes for Pali, Persian and Prakrit.
19. Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI) has been recommended.
The path-breaking reforms recommended will bring about a paradigm shift by equipping our students, teachers and educational institutions with the right competencies and capabilities and also create an enabling and reinvigorated educational eco-system for a vibrant new India.
Link courtesy Mr Rajinder Pal Devgan, Chairman Learning Forward India.
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