New Education Policy
The National Policy on Education, as formulated in 1986 and modified in1992, has been the guiding document of the policies of the Central Government in the education sector for well over two decades. During this period, significant changes have taken place in India and the world at large.
Information technology has changed the way we work, live and perform our day to day activity. The old policy has the clear objective; however, those have not been achieved fully or even 50 %. The ground reality is different from what was formulated.
Also, There is no policy in respect of private participation in the education system, both at the school and higher education levels.
The Government of India has launched several social and developmental initiatives such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Digital India, Skill India, Make in India and Smart Cities. All these initiatives have significant backward and forward linkages with the education sector which need to be taken into account in the new NPE.
For the factual progress of a nation, quality education is said to be the foundational stone.
Good education supports new discoveries, fresh knowledge, and cutting-edge innovation that in real determines the growth and prosperity of the nation. Education acts as a dynamic human development aspect. Its relevance keeps on broadening with emerging needs of a society as well as economy.
In India, Our New Education Policy was drafted by TSR Subramanian, the former Cabinet Secretary which was done nearly after the thirty years of our previous one education policy. The report is of 200 pages submitted by the concerned Committee with its 90 recommendations. Now the Ministry of Human Resource Development has drafted for National New Education Policy with a few modifications in it.
Findings of the report- Takeaways
It has been reported that the overall quality of the education either in primary or in higher stages has been very poor and has also been deteriorated further in the last nearly 10–15 years. However, the number of the educational institutions have increased.
In education system also, the discrimination factor continues to persist against the weaker and the marginalized children. Its wide-scale presence in society is a proof that the education system cannot remain aloof in terms of discrimination. However, each child has equal educational rights as per RTE but with no significant signs of improvement, RTE is a toothless tiger.
It has been noted as per the findings that teachers, mentors and their training part are often undervalued or neglected while directors, secretaries, and other authorities are given comparatively more importance. The idea should be the teacher-oriented focus as they act the most prominent linkage between the students and the institutions.
Since the current state of educational development in India is, at least 6% of GDP, must be well spent as an essential expenditure for the education sector. The Report has also talked in favor of 6% GDP for the education sector, a well-defined and structured education system of public institutions and strong implementation of the Right to Education Act.
Colleges and Universities are temples of learning. The essence of their existence lies in providing a flawless delivery of education as their primary work. Some of the self-imposed restrictions must in place for them to make sure that their primary work of the universities is conducted with no hindrance.
These institutions ought not to act themselves as political playgrounds for national rivalries, or mushroom inequities, inequalities, and let there be a tussle on social/cultural fault lines; these must be tackled by the forums such as parliament, courts, elections etc and society as a whole. Political events must be restricted to avoid distractions in educational institutions.
However, the Committee reports and MHRD reports, emphasis on the infrastructure development part only. RTE was not been given its due importance in this Report. There are just 10% of the schools, complying with the RTE norms even after 6 years.
Numerous Problems like the quality of education, teacher training, education standardization have been addressed themselves in RTE Act. The segment on detention policy was also removed while formatting RTE so that self-esteem of any child must not be killed. However, despite such worthy initiatives, there remain the poor results.
Suggestions as per the Report-
The Committee has recommended that for the children up to class 5th, no detention policy remain continued when the child is of 11 years of age. From Class 5 to 8, the upper primary class, for children the ages between 11 and 14 years, the system of detention should be restored for the children who remain below the requisite minimum learning standard.
- Based on Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) and the end term examinations, the weak performing students will be identified and they should be provided the remedial teaching solution at the school day end or during the holidays, for this the new arrangements should be created in the school system.
- On the basis of merit, a university should be graded to have the autonomy. The better it performs, more the autonomy it should get. The Committee Report not at all favor of student unions. It marked that the academic issues should be their only agenda if present.
- Despite the best reports and good policy initiatives, the results are not sound. The paralysis remains due to ineffective implementation and poor execution mechanism.
Considering the education as the foundational stone in every individual’s life, it becomes the whole sole duty of every enabler to let there be quality education for better gentry and their all-around development throughout in life.