The initiation of the National Educational Policy 2020 ( NEP) has altered the institutionalised view of education to a rational and skill-based one.
The Union Cabinet adopted the National Education Policy 2020, paving the way for large-scale, transformative changes in both the CBSE school and higher education sectors. NEP 2020 is the first education policy of the twenty-first century, succeeding the 34-year-old National Policy on Education (NPE) of 1986.
This policy, aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, aspires to convert India into a thriving knowledge society and leading global information power. The NEP aims toward a holistic, flexible, and interdisciplinary approach based on the core pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability. The NEP is designed to adapt to 21st-century demands and targets individual growth, focusing on upskilling.
Transformation into a global educational hub
While there is a focus on making higher education affordable, high-quality, inclusive and available to all eligible citizens of India, there is also a renewed interest and urgency in the internationalisation and promotion of our educational institutions.
NEP 2020 states to ensure collaborations with foreign universities by participating in the exchange of faculties and students. It has positioned Indian Universities at the centre of international alliances supported by implementing policy.
Among the significant tasks are :
- Promoting international collaboration, ensuring diversity and adaptability,
- Establishing peer-to-peer connections in teaching and research,
- Encouraging endowment culture,
- Incorporating motivational and experiential learning,
- Providing increased public-private partnership,
- And ensuring the value proposition in our higher education that we must accomplish.
Diversity is an important factor contributing to exposure; hence, schools and educational institutions must promote diversity. The Indian educational system continues to follow an outdated, inflexible curriculum concerned with delivering dry academic knowledge. There are substantial curricular gaps between what higher education institutions teach and what the economy requires, which must be updated and resolved. Instead of promoting input and rote learning, the main focus of pedagogy and evaluation should be gaining practical knowledge and developing critical thinking. Priority must be given to upskilling to fit with the global education standards.
Conclusion
The NEP 2020 demands modifying the higher education regulations by establishing four divisions with various roles for regulation, accreditation, funding, and academic standard setting; creating a National Research Foundation (NRF); and expanding interdisciplinary universities and colleges are positive steps. The main goal of the globalisation of Indian higher education is to compare Indian higher education to the best of the world’s institutions, methods, institutions, and quality standards. The government, academics, market,
community, and civil society must work seriously together. Will the Indian education system be able to endure it?