NEP 2020: A Year Later-Moving Into Implementation Phase At Speed

The launch of the National Education Policy (NEP) last year was a milestone in Indian education. It is heartening to note that the government is working in mission mode to implement the policy and has moved ahead with several of the initiatives envisaged in the landmark policy within one year of its launch. 

The government has launched several initiatives to take the agenda of the policy forward in areas ranging from pre-school education, assessment frameworks for school education, engineering education, bank of credits, internationalization, teacher training, and platforms and programs on technology education.

Bringing flexibility to higher education is one of the goals of the policy and the launch of the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) will be a key enabler for realizing this goal. ABC and the policy on the ‘Multiple Entry and Exit’ system (MEES) are complementary. These will provide the students freedom to pursue their preferred course at their own convenience both in terms of timing, duration and at an institution of their choice, thereby enabling a culture of continuous learning. 

Offering engineering courses in regional languages is another proactive step to ensure that talented youth who have completed their school education in regional languages have an equal opportunity to realize their dreams of studying engineering. To address the requirements of course content in Indian languages, a technology-enabled translation mechanism has been worked out. 

India had been a university to the world centuries back. With the release of guidelines for the internationalisation of Higher Education, it is hoped that Indian institutions will be able to attract students from all over the world again.  

On a separate note, the pre-school module Vidya Pravesh which has also been launched should go a long way in ensuring that children from all socio-economic backgrounds are ready for school in a playful, fun-filled way and benefit the most from their school journey. 

On the occasion of completion of one year of NEP 2020, the Government has also launched Indian Sign Language as a subject. This has been a long-standing requirement and will help the hearing-impaired while also sensitizing the entire society about the need to make the education system more inclusive.

Teacher training continues to be a key area of focus even as multiple efforts have been made in this field. With the launch of the National Initiative for School Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA 2.0), it is hoped that teacher development for preparing our students for the twenty-first century as per the needs of NEP 2020 will get a new fillip. 

Also, a competency-based assessment framework for primary grade students in CBSE schools is a welcome sign since it moves away from rote-based high-pressure assessments to application and skill-based evaluation. The focus on introducing Artificial intelligence is an aspirational step forward and aligns well with India’s National Strategy on AI. 

Further, the NEP’s first year commemoration event also witnessed the launch of National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR) and National Education Technology Forum (NETF)- both of which are likely to play a key role in technology enabling education in India and enhancing its reach across space and time. 

As a part of NEP’s implementation journey, at the national level, agencies like the National Testing Agency (NTA), the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) have been tasked with different duties to kick-start the ministry’s plan from 2022-23. The NTA, which conducts the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering and the National Eligibility and Education Test (NEET) for medical courses, has been asked to work on the modalities of a single entrance exam for all universities. NCERT has been asked to work on a new curriculum, focusing on learning outcomes, from pre-primary to Class 12. In line with the policy that focuses on early childhood education, the council has been asked to prepare a three-month study module for students in Class 1 to make them school ready. Modules on numerical literacy, with a special focus on younger children, will also be prepared by the council and is expected to be rolled out soon. 

A scan of the interventions at the level of states suggests that several initiatives have been taken by the states too. Several states have created task forces and committees for implementing NEP for their respective states.  

Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka have emerged as front runners in implementing NEP 2020 in the current academic year, while other states including Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Goa have set up committees and task forces to plan the implementation roadmap. Several states have launched state-level Institutional Rating Framework (IRFs) to improve the participation and ranking of higher education institutions from the state in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). They have similarly established state-level centres/ agencies for ensuring Quality Assurance initiatives for assessment and accreditation. Further, State Higher Education Councils has been established. They have also started the process of identifying districts that do not have universities to meet the requirements of at least one university in each district under NEP.

Continuing with some of the state specific examples, in alignment with NEP’s vision of standards-setting and accreditation for school education, the government of Gujarat has established Gujarat School Quality Accreditation Council (GSQAC). Further, the state has established a Command and Control Center (CCC 2.0) for real time data and analytics driven management of education with online attendance,  real-time time-periodic assessment, student level report card and school dashboards, and a call centre for monitoring and support among other things. 

In the case of Delhi, the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) from 2022-23 and the four-year undergraduate programme were approved by the Standing Committee on Academic Matters and the Academic Council in Delhi recently.

These multiple initiatives being undertaken across the country within just a year of the NEP launch provide hope that NEP will be implemented with speed and scale and the government ecosystem is building the necessary skills and systems to be able to do that. All the key stakeholders: central government and national agencies, state governments, and universities and other higher education institutions would need to continue their efforts and continue to collaborate for effective implementation of the landmark policy and trends so far have been quite encouraging.

Kamlesh Vyas

Guest Author The author is Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP