Implementation of NEP Kickstarts this June

By Vivek K Singh 

New Education Policy is the policy that replaces the thirty-four year old National Policy on Education (NPE) which was introduced in 1986. The idea behind the new education policy is to promote further flexibility to make school or college education more holistic. This will bring out the unique capabilities of every student. The foremost transformation was to rename the Ministry of Human Resource Development as the Ministry of Education.

As per the sources, the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 is expected to be set in motion this June. Apart from this, the Ministry of Education is going to set up live dashboards to monitor its progress beginning from June 2021. 181 tasks have been identified by the ministry that will be accomplished under NEP 2020. It includes à la carte subject options for all undergraduate and postgraduate students, entry and exit flexibility in degree programmes, a regional language-based education system and credit bank systems.

Technology-Enabled Pedagogy

NEP is groundbreaking in every way and there is no denial of this fact. Technology is a common thread that runs through all the variety of topics that falls under the umbrella of the New Education Policy, these are comprehensive education, the need for early childhood care, curriculum reform etc. As India is evolving into an information-intensive society, an urgent need for the adoption of technology into the field of education is felt.

Some important aspects of the NEP that will be run by technology are listed below :

• In states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa, task forces were formed to study the implementation of NEP 2020 and related challenges. The task force of Karnataka has released its report which suggests that the policy could be implemented from 2021 onwards. However, any official notification has not been made public yet.

• By the account of an official, “the Ministry of Education itself will be monitoring the dashboard on a monthly and a quarterly basis. A deadline will be fixed for each task and communication will be carried out with individual state agencies”.

• An implementation and review committee will also be created by the ministry which will be headed by the higher education department officials whose work will be to closely monitor the progress.

• Auxiliary task forces will be set up to adjudicate the credit bank system and modification of IITs into multidisciplinary institutes.

• Under the credit bank, an academic credit will be added to the student's digital locker after the completion of every course module. Even if a student drops out of college after two years and he/she decides to join again, the academic credit remains intact in his/her digital locker. This is an added advantage to those who had to drop out due to financial and personal reasons.

Official accountability

In the cases of implementation delays, assigned officials at the state and district levels will be responsible to explain the reasons for the hold-up. As of March 2021, India has a total of 54 central universities, 425 state universities, 125 deemed-to-be universities, and 375 private universities. The newly set up dashboard will monitor and review the progress of state as well as central universities, and the major focus will be on central universities. The freshly setup dashboard will evaluate progress at the state and central universities, the major focus will be on the central universities.

Though the policy is an inventive document that identifies the critical role of technology in promoting education in India, it is prominent to create a cohesive plan of action to foster the successful implementation of the policy.