The PROS & CONS of National Education Policy, 2020

  

 National Education Policy, 2020 Education is fundamental for achieving full human potential, developing an equitable and just society, and promoting national development. Providing universal access to quality education is the key to India’s continued ascent, and leadership on the global stage in terms of economic growth, social justice and equality, scientific advancement, national integration, and cultural preservation The Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy (NEP) in July 2020. 

This policy will usher in sweeping changes to the education policy of the country, including a renaming of the Ministry of Human Resource Development as the Education Ministry. 

The major features of the education policy include recognizing, identifying, and fostering the unique capabilities of each student, no hard separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams, etc. in order to eliminate harmful hierarchies among, and silos between different areas of learning, ethics and human & Constitutional values, promoting multilingualism and the power of language, extensive use of technology in teaching and learning, removing language barriers, increasing access for Divyang students, and educational planning and management, a rootedness and pride in India, and its rich, diverse, ancient and modern culture and knowledge systems and traditions and overall development and well- being of the students.

 These major features showcase a positive view of the development of education in India. The scheme does not focus on the rot learning of similar facts which is passed on to the next generations but it focuses on the holistic development of the student which not only focus on learning but also on the ethics, technology and practical based learning. In today’s competitive world, where our students have to compete with the student worldwide, it is necessary to provide them with the advance learning of all their subjects particularly science and technology. The practical approach towards subjects like science will develop interest of our young minds where they will grow and work for the institutions like ISRO, BARC, IITs, CSIC, etc. 

 Along with the positive features the scheme provides, there are some serious threats which may avail with the policy. Those important drawbacks include the academic syllabus will be taught in the respective regional languages of the Government school students. This is one of the major new education policy drawbacks as this will increase the number of students uncomfortable in communicating in English thus widening the gap between sections of the societies. Also, Students willing to complete their graduation have to study for four years while one can easily complete his/ her diploma degree in two years. This might encourage the pupil to leave the course midway. Another important drawback is that the students of the private schools will be introduced with English at a much earlier age than the students of the Government schools. 

 The independence of the choice of different subjects and navigation from one stream to another, will not be beneficial for their career. For example, if a student takes subjects like biology, accountancy and music as his subjects, no doubt he will have knowledge of various subjects but and expertise in none. This won’t gain him a successful career ahead as knowledge and career are two distant options. 

Hence, after analyzation of all the points, we may conclude that the policy needs some amendments to make it perfect for our students. Some of the suggestions that I would like to suggest is that, English should be used as the medium of instruction in government schools as we have to prepare students to compete at the global context. Along with English, one foreign language like French, German, Italian etc. also must be taught. We must align the young minds of students towards science, computers and technology through practical experimenting and training. Sports and esports should also be considered as career options. The infrastructure should be developed. There is also a need of evolution of the ways of teaching and teacher training should be improved. The education should be practical by nature and it should be career oriented and we should try to fit our curriculum according to world context which will attract students from other countries too . 

To bring our education system world oriented and advance is the need of time. India’s education system manufactures world class workers but producing world class employers is what we have to achieve. The business and marketing must be a specific field of study at the schools too like history, economics and physics. We need to minimize the growing interest and need for a government job in youth and help them to establish business. 

Getting a hold on the brain drain is really important. As an Indian, it hurts when our students work for NASA, TESLA, IBM, Amazon, etc. for their growth and accomplishing their dreams. Well, this holds for another discussion. Our students must know what to do and where to begin. All the pros and cons of a specific discipline or subject. Along with the study, our tradition, culture and discipline must be taken care of. For the discipline and learning manners, the schools of Japan must be considered. The Japanese have least crime rates, are most mannered and disciplined people. They can travel to 134 countries without visa… Know why? These are some of the points to be considered and it may be concluded that Education policy has great benefits but it calls for some amendments to make our education system best across the globe.