National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) sets out a vision with a plan for transforming education

system of across India in both schooling and higher level. The policy was not approved by the
parliament because it will majorly depend upon the implementation of state governments. As the
education is concurrent list’s subject (made through 42nd Amendment Act, 1976) and over
concurrent subject both union and state have power to implement the laws. On July 29, 2020,
Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which is the first education
policy of the 21st century. It replaced the 34 year-old National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986.
The fundamental pillars of this new policy are “Access, Equity, Quality, Accountability,
Affordability. Also, it is planned to align this policy with 2030 Agenda of sustainable
development. The purpose of the policy is to transform India’s educational system into more
energetic, knowledgeful in terms of society and to make it globally flexible by adding global
knowledge. As it aims to match the school and higher education with 21st centuaries needs by
making the education more flexible, holistic and multidisciplinary all together. It aims to bring
out the capability of students that are unique and to give light and promote that skill of students.
This policy also emphasizes to promote the conceptual clarity and critical thinking and to make it
well-rounded education system and based on discoveries rather than merely focusing on
theoretical aspects. It also allows children to remove choose any of the subjects of any of the
streams as per their choice without having any specified norm. It also addresses the need for
higher standards of imparting knowledge by curating the National Professional Standards for
Teachers (NPST) and a new National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE).

Changes in NEP 2020:

1. Schooling to begin from the age of 3 years: This policy has introduced the pre-
schooling concept for the age group of 3-6 year under which the three years will be
dedicated to pre-schooling before starting the school.. It also expands the mandatory age
group schooling ranging from the age of 6-14 years to 3-18 years. The existing 10+2
structure of school curriculum will be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure
corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively.

2. A Single Overarching Body of Higher Education: The Higher Education Commission

of India (HECI) will be set up that will be perfroming as an umbrella over the entire
education system, excluding legal and medical education. These same set of rules and
 regulation, accreditation, and academic standards, will be applicable to both public and
private higher education institutions.

3. The Return of the FYUP Programme and No More Dropouts: The duration of the
undergraduate degree will be either 3 or 4 years. Students will also be given multiple exit
options within this period. Students will be granted certificate even after completing a
year of the degree and the colleges will be providing for the certificate of the same.

4. Separation between subject streams to be blurred: As per NEP 2020, the rigid
separations between subject’s and streams will be scrapped and students will have the
liberty to choose any subjet of any stream. Vocational education to be introduced in
schools from Class 6 and will include internships as well.

5. Mother tongue to be instated as medium of instruction: This new policy will also be
focusing on introducing mather tounge as a medium of education for students and will
included in “three language formaula”. However no mother tounge language be imposed
on students that don’t want to study it as there would be no mandotry rules regarding that.
6. Assessment Reforms: Higher-order abilities such as analysis, critical thinking, and
conceptual clarity will be tested as part of the assessment criteria, which will be more
focused on learning and growth. Exams will be given in Grades 3, 5, and 8, and will be
administered by the proper authorities. As the National Assessment Centre, a new
standard body called PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of
Knowledge for Holistic Development) will be established.

7. Financing Education: The policy will be funded by both the Union and State and will be
increasing public investment by 6% of the total Gross Domestic Product.

8. Regulation: The Higher Education Commission of India would be the single overarching
umbrella organization for all higher education, barring medical and legal education
(HECI). The National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) will be in charge
of regulation, while the General Education Council (GEC) will be in charge of standard-
setting, the Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) will be in charge of funding, and
the National Accreditation Council (NAC) will be in charge of accreditation.
9. Online Education and Digital Education: MHRD will be developing a dedicated unit to
build digital infrastructure, digital content, and capacity building to help students of both
school and higher level of their education.

Are these changes sufficient?

 Introducing mother tounge as a one of the primary languages was not a much of a needed
change. Though it is not mandatory for the students but still it will disturb the ratio of
students and teachers as there are not sufficient teachers for providing education on
different languages across the country.

 As the new policy introduced the higher education system of 4 years which is considered
to be long time for any basic undergraduate degree. However, the addition of certification
provided to the the students who wants to left the dedgree in between is a major plus of
this policy. As because of this students dropping out from college after a year or two
because of any reason will not affect their career and they will be having a certificate of
what they have completed.

 A comparable project at Delhi University, including a four-year undergraduate

curriculum, was discontinued years ago due to poor execution. The strategy offers no
answers to the difficulties previously observed, especially when it comes to failures of a
higher degree and with less specialization.

Conclusion
While the NEP, 2020 makes several alarming promises, they are neither time-bound nor
guaranteed. It does not provide a required mechanism for enforcing and implementing the
suggested modifications. While the formation of a Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog is mentioned
briefly, the scope and mechanism of its operation are not specified.
Because of its underlying classism, casteism, and lack of clarity about execution, the
extremely ambitious and mostly rhetorical program exemplifies the government's
apathetic approach toward education.The NEP, 2020 would benefit from an overhaul,
incorporating changes in accordance to the interests of all major stakeholders, especially
those who are most disadvantaged in status quo, after deliberation with experts in the
field.