National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is the new policy which outlines the vision of a new education system in India. It is a comprehensive framework for elementary to higher education to vocational training and education for rural and urban parts of India. In August 2021, Karnataka became the first state to issue an order regarding the implementation of NEP from the year 2021. The state started to implement NEP in higher educational institutions falling under the state from the academic year 2021-22 and aimed to implement it in schools from the 2023-24 academic year.
Some of the major changes due to the new policy is the replacement of the ‘10+2’ structure with the ‘5+3+3+4’ model. This new model’s structure has been divided into stages to build a skill-based learning environment. The Foundational Stage is from preschool to class 2, who will be learning through activities. The following stage is the Preparatory Stage where classes 3 to 5 will be taught subjects like speaking, writing, physical education and languages and basics of maths, social sciences etc. The Middle Stage is from classes 6 to 8 where students are introduced to more abstract concepts. The Secondary Stage ranges from classes 9 to 12 where students will be taught in a multidisciplinary manner with depth and critical thinking. Multiple options for choosing subjects from any stream are also made available.
The policy aims to reduce the load of curriculum and help them learn practically through projects, and interdisciplinary courses, have the multilingual capacity and procure a versatile education. In order to provide a holistic education for the students, they are allowed to choose any subject across streams to study. Physical education like yoga is a credited course now. For higher education, the policy proposed a 4-year multidisciplinary bachelor’s degree in an undergraduate programme with multiple entry and exit options including professional and vocational subjects. After 1 year of studying a student secures a certificate, after 2 years you acquire a diploma, completion of a 3-year programme results in a Bachelor’s degree and the 4th year is an optional year to get an Honours degree. Mphil courses have been discontinued to make them similar to Western Models. This model has been by far the most seemingly effective model to bring a change in the Indian education system. The shift from rote learning and theory-based learning to having a skill-based overall development education for students can be made possible through this new structure. Implementing new policies and making major changes in the system is not easy, especially in a large country like India.
R.V. College of Engineering (RVCE), Bengaluru just like other colleges had implemented NEP from the 2021 batch onwards. Their curriculum and teaching-learning process for NEP batches include the design of choice-based curriculum in clusters, interdisciplinary electives, ICT and Active Learning Methodologies, experiential learning through PB, innovation and skill labs, design thinking lab, combining liberal arts with technology, extracurricular activities such as part of credit, industry and research-based internships and projects and MOOC with NPTEL too. When asked about what impact has the policy had on students and their education, Dr. K.N. Subramanya, Principal of RVCE said, “The impact of the NEP is not yet known because the first batch still has to come out. But by introducing all these things, we’re already seeing that their (students’) learning has been good. In the second and third year, only a lot of students are getting internships in good companies because of the introduction of all this.” Similar to what Dr. Subramaya said, Ms. Suma Singh, Dean of Humanities of Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru said, “ It is too early to gauge the impact. As a policy, it is quite revolutionary as it seeks to change the very structure and nature of higher education. The very fact that our large young population fails to find jobs shows the limitation of our paper degrees. Education needs to be more skill-based with an emphasis on learning rather than teaching….this is the spirit of NEP. So, the emphasis on multidisciplinary education with skill and vocational courses given weightage is welcome.” Since it is just the start of implementing it full-fledged and making more changes to suit institutions, the National Education Policy has shaped itself differently across institutions but the major outcome is that students are becoming more skilful and versatile.
Implementing a major policy like this is not easy and takes a good amount of time to settle in for students and the faculty of institutions. Ms. Singh expressed that since the policy was introduced with a certain degree of haste upset the academic schedule and the college did not get preparatory time for it. She also said, “The teaching staff also struggled in appreciating the nuances of the policy and in most cases the key areas of focus-revamping of programs & curriculum, experimenting with new pedagogy of teaching-learning, exploring new evaluation tools, I suspect were not fully achieved.” It is important to understand that since the policy has such major changes in curriculum, it should have been planned and institutions should have been given separate time to train the teaching faculty to avoid the hasty implementation. Dr Subramanya said that a lot of training of the faculty had to be done and new infrastructure had to be created to implement some things; the only challenge left to overcome is the multiple entry and exit option and how to execute it. It can be deduced that major institutions in Bengaluru and Karnataka have already started to make these major changes and seem to be still adjusting to them.
Recently, the new State Government announced that they are thinking of scrapping the NEP that was implemented and is in discussion with educators and are going to take a decision after inputs from all the stakeholders. When Ms. Singh was asked about her thoughts on this she said, “Scrapping the policy is a knee-jerk political decision. Education must not be used as a political battlefield. NEP, per se, is a good attempt to revamp and revive the Higher Education space in India. The old degree programs are not relevant in today’s technology-driven society and the old methods of teaching and learning will just aggravate the problem of unemployment in the economy.” Dr. Subramanya mentioned that it will most likely not be scrapped because, “We are all governed by accreditation bodies, UGC, AICTE and a lot of bodies..if they ask to make small changes, we’re ready to make. They are part of the education system and these changes are happening already and nothing will be scrapped as such. I don’t think it will happen.”
NEP has not rolled out in primary and secondary education and hence none of the schools have implemented it. All colleges under the state, public and private universities have implemented it. Students have so far benefitted from the curriculum and systemic changes but have also struggled to attune themselves to the new changes. There has been resistance to the Open Elective system because some students said they would rather study their own major-related subjects than inter-stream subjects. Nonetheless, it has helped students get a variety of knowledge that might be useful in the long run and might be a break from their major courses. Students have been getting more opportunities to apply their theoretical knowledge practically because of projects and internship opportunities that have become easily available due to the system. Students and the teaching faculty are still familiarising themselves with the new system and the change has been welcomed. It is expected that in the upcoming years, the new education system with National Education Policy will make a major difference in uplifting the quality of education in India.
