National
Education
Policy 2020
Major
Reforms in Higher Education:
Ø Multiple Entry and Exit
Points with appropriate certification. UG education can be of 3 or 4 years with
multiple exit options and appropriate certification within this period. For
example, Certificate after 1 year, Advanced Diploma after 2 years, Bachelor's
Degree after 3 years and Bachelor's with Research after 4 years.
Ø Higher
Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as a single overarching
umbrella body the for entire higher education, excluding medical and legal
education.
Ø A
National Mission for Mentoring will be established, with a large pool of
outstanding senior/retired faculty
Ø Efforts
will be made to incentivize the merit of students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, and
other SEDGs. The National Scholarship Portal will be expanded to support,
foster, and track the progress of students receiving scholarships.
Ø An
Academic Bank of Credit is to be established for digitally storing academic
credits earned from different HEls so that these can be transferred and counted
towards final degree earned.
Major
Reforms in School Education
Ø The
10+2 structure of school curricula to be replaced by a 5+3+3+4(9-12 class)
curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years
respectively. The new system will have 12 years of schooling with three years
of Anganwadi/ pre schooling.
Ø The
policy has emphasized mother tongue/local languagel regional language as the
medium of instruction at least till Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and
beyond. Sanskrit to be offered at all levels of school and higher education as
an option for students, including in the three-language formula. Other
classical languages and literatures of India also to be available as options.
No language will be imposed on any student.
Ø All
students will take school examinations in Grades 3, 5, and 8 which will be
conducted by the appropriate authority. Board exams for Grades 10 and 12 will
be continued, but redesigned with holistic development as the aim. A new
National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and
Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), will be set up as a
standard-setting body.
Ø Mathematical
Thinking & Scientific Temper(coding from class 6)
Ø No
rigid separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and
extra-curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams.
Vocational education will start in schools from the 6th grade, and will include
internships.
Teacher Education
ØTeacher education is truly vital in creating a team of school teachers that will shape the next generation. Teacher preparation is an activity that requires multidisciplinary perspectives and knowledge, the formation of dispositions and values, and the development of practice under the best mentors. Teachers must be grounded in Indian values, languages, knowledge, ethos, and traditions, while also being well-versed in the latest advances in education and pedagogy.
ØThe Justice JS Verma Commission (2012) constituted by the Supreme Court has stated that a majority of stand-alone teaching institutes - over 10,000 in number - are not even attempting serious teacher education, but are essentially selling degrees for a price. The Regulatory efforts so far have neither been able to curb the corruption rampant in the system, nor enforce basic standards for quality, and in fact have had the negative effect of curbing the growth of excellence and innovation in the sector. The sector and its regulatory system are therefore in urgent need of revitalisation through radical action, in order to raise standards and restore integrity, credibility, efficacy, and high quality to the teacher education system.
ØIn order to improve and reach the levels of integrity and credibility required to restore the prestige of the teaching profession and thereby attain a successful school system, the Regulatory system shall be empowered to phase out substandard and dysfunctional teacher education institutions (TEI) that do not meet basic educational criteria. All TEIs will be held accountable to adherence to the basic criteria for approval of their programmes; after giving one year for remedy, if any breaches are found, they will be shut down if the breaches are not remedied. By 2025, only multi-disciplinary and integrated teacher education programmes shall be in force.
Ø The teacher education must be conducted within composite multidisciplinary institutions having, apart from education, departments of psychology, philosophy, sociology, neuroscience, Indian languages, arts, history, and literature, as well as various other specialised subjects such as science and mathematics etc. All stand-alone TEIs will be required to convert to multidisciplinary institutions by 2025 and offer the 4-year integrated teacher preparation programme. All large multidisciplinary universities - including all public universities as well as all Model Multidisciplinary Colleges shall establish, develop, and house outstanding education departments which, aside from carrying out cutting-edge research in various aspects of education, will also run B.Ed. programmes to educate future teachers.
Ø The 4-year integrated B.Ed. offered by such multidisciplinary HEIs will, by 2030, become the minimal degree qualification for school teachers. The 4-year integrated B.Ed. will be a dual-major holistic Bachelor's degree, in Education as well as a specialised subject (such as a language, or history, music, mathematics, computer science, chemistry, economics, etc). Beyond the teaching of cutting-edge pedagogy, the teacher education will include grounding in sociology, history, science, psychology, early childhood education, foundational literacy and numeracy, knowledge of India and its values/ethos/art/traditions, and more. Each HEI offering the 4-year integrated B.Ed. may also design a 2-year B.Ed. on its campus, for outstanding students who have already received a Bachelor's degree in a specialised subject and wish to pursue teaching. Scholarships for meritorious students will be established for the purpose of attracting outstanding candidates to both the 4-year and 2-year B.Ed. programmes.
Ø For converting
public stand-alone TEIs into multidisciplinary higher educational institutions
there shall be government funding support. Such HEIs will ensure the
availability school
complexes to work with in close proximity, where potential teachers will student-teach
(among other synergistic activities between HEIs and school complexes, such as
community service, adult and vocational education, etc).
Ø In order to maintain uniform acceptable standards of education, the admission to preservice teacher preparation programmes shall be through a single nation-wide entrance examination to be conducted by the National Testing Agency. The test may contain both subject and aptitude tests and shall be standardised keeping in view the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country.
Ø The faculty in Departments of Education shall have not only PhDs in education but also those without PhD but having outstanding teaching experience/field experience; and those with training in areas of social sciences that are directly relevant to school education (e.g., psychology, child development, linguistics, sociology, philosophy/political science) as well as from science education, mathematics education, social science
education, and language education.
Ø All fresh PhD entrants, irrespective of discipline, will be required to take credit-based courses in teaching/education/pedagogy related to their chosen PhD subject during their doctoral training period. Exposure to pedagogic practices, designing curriculum, credible evaluation systems, and so on will be ensured since many research scholars will go on to become faculty. PhD students will also have a minimum number of hours of actual teaching experience gathered through teaching assistantships and other means. PhD programmes at universities around the country must be re-oriented for this purpose. Opportunities for PhD students to assist faculty as teaching assistants must be created as part of all PhD programmes.
Ø In-service continuous professional development for college and university teachers will continue through the existing institutional arrangements and ongoing initiatives and these will be strengthened and substantially expanded to meet the needs to enriched teaching learning processes for quality education. Using technology platforms such as SWAYAM /DIKSHA for online training of the teachers shall be encouraged so that standardised training programmes can be administered to large number of teachers within a short span of time.
ØA National Mission for Mentoring shall be funded and established, with a large pool of outstanding senior/retired faculty – particularly those with the ability to teach in Indian languages – who would be willing to provide short and long-term mentoring professional support to university/college teachers.