Walking NEP talk

Relevance: This article explains the various challenges present before the National Education Policy

Synopsis:

A year later, the national education policy remains a guide to the future, but there are challenges.

Introduction:

It’s been a year since the National Education Policy 2020 laid out a map for a long-overdue re-imagination of Indian education. But, the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down the implementation of the policy.

Some of the proposals in the policy are poised to see the light of day this academic year. Such as,

• An academic credit bank for undergraduate students
• 14 engineering colleges across eight states will teach undergraduate programmes in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi from the new academic year.

Challenges with the National Education Policy:

• The government will need to put in significant resources and work to create a knowledge ecosystem for engineering courses in the regional languages.
• When the government is calling for greater autonomy, several universities continue to function without vice-chancellors. For instance, 10 central universities, including Delhi University and JNU, remain without full-time heads.
• The NEP asks for the highest priority to literacy and numeracy, but the government has slashed the school education budget by almost Rs 5,000 crore; higher education has suffered a Rs 1,000 crore cut.
• The cancellation of the Class XII board examinations and subsequent challenges for institutes of higher education also needs attention.