The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is the first policy in the last three decades. The policy is ambitious & futuristic but much of its success will depend on how it is executed. An overarching theme of this policy is to reimagine education rather restoring the term ‘Education’. Hence there is no doubt that the leaders of the future will need to understand how different disciplines interact with each other & how human behaviour & societal Megatrends are shaped by this interaction.
The policy is a welcome move for the countrymen. It emphasizes on holistic multidisciplinary education for future nation’s stakeholders.

Why do we keep teaching science as History? The new policy addresses all of this holistically. The National Education Policy(NEP-2020) has provided an environment of trust & freedom because learning to learn is a need of these times. The policy has stressed this enough in the discussion on school education.

Besides, (NEP-2020) envisages commendable changes by emphasising on Universal Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE), Preparatory class prior to Ist Grade, foundational Literacy & numeracy, Capacity building of teachers & making the system more flexible for students by allowing them to choose their subjects. The Policy also raises a few concerns with respect of languages. The policy has also addressed the issue of creative thinking, design thinking & innovation.

If we sumup, the New Education Policy is a big move introducing number of changes. However, the policy will require finances for effective implementation. Therefore it’s announcement in the crises of pandemic, with economic uncertainty looming large, is quite interesting. Moreover, many points in the draft are quite debatable including, Centralization, 6% of GDP spending & importantly the introduction of regional/mother language upto the 5th standard which infact is a good decision, but what will happen if a kashmiri student’s family shifts to Delhi or somewhere else? How will S/he manage if s/he doesn’t know hindi ?

The author is a Teacher & can be mailed @
mushtaqbhat1312@gmail.com