The new education policy takes a holistic approach towards turning human resource into resourceful workforce
Raushan Kumar
After more than three decades, finally, India got its new National Education Policy. This policy aims at a more positive outlook towards curriculum and courses at each level.
The policy looks to discontinue the earlier set system of 10+2 and re-designs it with a 5+3+3+4. There is a better policy framework and recommendations were reached upon by the Ministry of Education through rigorous discussions by educationists. Major recommendations have been made under research programs. These include phasing out of M.Phil and boosting National Research Foundation (NRF). NEP 2020 aims to build fresh research and scientific temper among students and gives more focus to practical knowledge rather than theoretical concepts.
The existing education system focuses on making students good rote learners but the new policies outlined in NEP 2020 look at enhancing a student’s abilities to practically use her classroom learning with skill, deep knowledge and scientific temperament. Human Resource is a major strength of our country and with NEP 2020 we can look forward to better intellectual and employable workforce. India is primarily a young country and while we’re currently counted among developing countries, proper development of our human resource can be the vital key towards becoming a developed nation. In the past, our education system emphasized theoretical rather than practical knowledge which hampered our population collectively.
Swami Vivekanand once said, as quoted by Swami Nirvedananda in his book Our Education that primary education up to age 12 should be accomplished in regional or mother language of students. This vision of Swami Vivekanand has been put into action in NEP 2020 which proposes mother tongue and regional languages as the medium of instruction until grade 5 and, if possible till grade 8. Most of the developed countries have been practicing their native language as the medium of instructions. This has been done due to social, physical, emotional and cognitive development of child begins at their early stage of life. We can take the example of Japan where Japanese language is compulsory at almost every level of work. This inculcates confidence in learning and empowers children to understand the concepts on their own. The new education policy instructs the teacher to teach not only in English but also in Indian regional language and this will help in student’s understanding of a concept in an earlier stage.
To strengthen research quality, NEP 2020 proposes a National Research Foundation to improve the culture of research not only in Science but also Social Science and Humanities. The existing education system treats research as a part of theoretical work. The proposed National Research Foundation will provide research scholars with incentives to motivate and reward quality research. Research may also be used by government agencies or other business organizations for their working. Most countries like Canada and USA focus on more observational and field work studies in research program and India has been lagging in the past few decades. A particularly unique feature of the NRF is to fund peer-reviewed proposal of all disciplines across different reputed universities. The existing system focuses on Science stream but these provisions will encourage competitiveness across all disciplines. This will also push researchers towards more training and practical observation.
Education in 21st-century is expected to focus on decision making, critical thinking and observational studies and students must take the advantage of various sources available in this era. Internet and offline e-resources are golden tools that are helping students move ahead with their studies even in coronavirus pandemic, exemplifying that education never ends. Pradhanmantri e-vidya is such a digital initiative by the Ministry of Education which creates opportunities for many digital players like Unacademy and BYJU’s for making education wider and targeted towards unserved sections of the societies.
There is no doubt that the new National Education Policy brings a great hope for new minds to promote technology-driven education and brings more positive curriculum activities that will be based on the choice of students.
EXIT SCHEME IN UNDERGRADUATION
University level: Upto 4 years
1st Year: Exit with a certificate.
2nd Year: Exit with a diploma
3rd Year: Exit with Bachelor degree
4th Year: Exit with Bachelor degree and research certificate.
The new education policy takes a holistic approach towards turning human resource into resourceful workforce. Human resources of the 21st century needs better intellectual and skill competencies which depend on modern learning techniques. A workforce that emerges through this is bound to be more innovative and better informed. Good skills and quality education can go a long way in forming such a workforce. The new education policy is a bold step to turn schools, colleges and universities as enablers in this direction.
(Raushan Kumar is an Intern with Academics4Nation. He is also a Ph.D. Research Scholar at Mahatma Gandhi Central University)