What are the main features of the New Education Policy 2020?

What are the main features of the New Education Policy 2020?

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday 29- 07–2020 approved the New Education Policy and and renamed the ministry of human resource and development (MHRD) as the ministry of education.

The main feature of NEP 2020 are :

1.Major Reforms: School Education :

• NEP 2020 is doing away with the existing 10+2 system and replacing it with a 5+3+3+4 system .
• This will be split as follows:
• Age 0-3 : motherhood care at home
• Age 3–8 : foundational stage : 3 years at anganwadi’s, pre-school or as commonly called play schools and the kindergarten classes catering to ages 3 to 6. The grades 1 and 2 or classes 1 and 2 for students of ages 6 to 8 would also be added, keeping the focus on development of language skills and teaching by play based and activity based curriculum.
• Age 8–11 : Three years of pre-primary stage (for class 3 -5) The focus till this stage would remain on development of language and numeracy skills, in accordance with the cognitive development of a child. Medium of instruction till Grade 5 would be home language or mother tongue or local language. Three languages would be taught to all students – and states would decide which ones.
• Age 11–14 : a preparatory stage ( for class 6–8) :the new structure aims at transforming the pedagogy from the existing system to a more experiential learning in the sciences, mathematics, arts, social sciences and humanities. Focus would be on critical learning objectives and not on rote learning.
• Age 14 -18 : a secondary stage (for class 9 -12 ) :The changes suggested at this stage include a multidisciplinary study where students would be able to pick and choose any set of subjects from the available structure. The focus would be on greater critical thinking and flexibility, allowing the child to pick subjects as per their interests – even technical and arts.
• According to the government the revised structure will "bring hitherto uncovered age group of three to six years, recognised globally as crucial stage for development of mental faculties, under school curriculum".

(Source :timesnow)

Major Reforms in school education :

• Board exams will be low stakes & test actual knowledge instead of rote learning.
• Mother tongue to be a medium of instruction till 5th grade.
• Report card will be a comprehensive report on skills and capabilities instead of just marks and statements.
• Nation mission to focus on basic literacy and basic numeracy.
• Major changes in the pedagogical structure of curriculum with no rigid separation between streams.
• All separation between vocational and academic and curricular and extra curricular will be removed.
• Board Examination will be Low Stakes, Based on Knowledge Application.
• Medium of Instruction till at least Grade 5, and preferably till grade 8 and beyond in home language/mother tongue /regional language.
• No Rigid Separation between Arts & Sciences, between vocational and academic.

2. Major Reforms: higher Education :

UG Programme - 3 or 4 years

• At graduate level,the NEP 2020 offers the students the option of choosing a 1 year Diploma, a 3 year bachelors degree or a 4 year bacherlors' degree with research across disciplines.
• A student would now have the option of multiple exit options – study for 1 year, 2 year, 3 year or 4 year. Under the multiple-exit programme, students will have the option to leave college whenever they want — if a student completes one year, he or she will get a certificate, two years will get them a diploma, three years will get them a degree, and if a student pursues a four-year programme with research, he or she will be eligible for direct admissions for a PhD.
• With multi-disciplinary approach, most of the bachelor’s degree would aim at becoming a 4-year programme with the fourth year adding to the ‘degree with research’.
• The undergraduate courses would be credit based and an Academic Bank of Credit or ABC would be available to digitally store the credit. Students would have an option to exit at different stages and also re-enter the higher education system, bringing with them the credits earned.

PG programme - 1 or 2 years

• For master’s level, HEIs would now have the option of offering a 1 year master’s degree. They can offer a two year program where the second year would be devoted entirely to research for those who have completed an undergraduate degree of three years.
• For those students who have completed 4 years of bachelors’ programme with research, there would be an option of a one year master’s degree.
• 5 year integrated bachelors’ and masters’ degree would continue.

M.Phil:

• The M. Phil programmer would be discontinued, as proposed by the NEP.
• M.Phil would be discontinued, paving way for students with masters' degree to get a Ph. D.

Ph. D

• The minimum eligibility for a PhD will now either be a four-year programme with research, or Master’s after a three-year programme.

1. Another major change at the level of higher education is the focus on making universities multi-disciplinary. This means that an institution will have to teach arts, science, social science, basically everything under one roof.
2. Single-stream institutions will fade out and, by 2040, all institutes will aim to become multidisciplinary, it states.
3. The NEP also does away with multiple regulators like the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). All these will now be replaced by a single regulator.
4. National assessment center - PARAKH
5. NTA to offer Common Entrance Exam for Admission TO HEIs.

Thank you....