Implementation of the new National Education Policy 2020: An assessment

This piece is part of the series, Governance Propositions of 2022

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The first full year after the release of the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 on 29 July 2020 has been a mixed bag with respect to implementation efforts by the Central and State governments and their autonomous agencies. The first step in the implementation, renaming the erstwhile Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) as the Ministry of Education (MOE) as suggested by the NEP, was immediate, given that the Union Cabinet approved this change at the same time as the policy itself. However, the progress since then has been chequered.

SARTHAQ defines activities associated with each recommendation of the NEP 2020. It delineates 297 tasks, identifies the agencies responsible for taking up each one of them, and also specifies the timelines and intended outcomes of these tasks.

The Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L) of the education ministry was quick off the mark to announce a slew of measures to implement NEP 2020. It organised the ‘Shikshak Parv’, a festival for teachers, from 8-25 September 2020, along with consultations with States and Union Territories (UTs), autonomous bodies, and all other stakeholders to discuss various recommendations of NEP 2020 and its implementation strategies. The outcome was a comprehensive implementation plan SARTHAQ (Students’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement through Quality Education), released on 8 April 2021. SARTHAQ defines activities associated with each recommendation of the NEP 2020. It delineates 297 tasks, identifies the agencies responsible for taking up each one of them, and also specifies the timelines and intended outcomes of these tasks.

Early education 

Given the NEP 2020’s major decision to replace the 10+2 system with the 5+3+3+4 system and its emphasis on the first five years of early childhood care and education beginning at age three, the DoSE&L also launched the ambitious NIPUN Bharat initiative to ensure foundational literacy and numeracy for all children by the year 2026–27. This is a much-needed and welcome move since the rest of NEP 2020 will be largely irrelevant for children if this most basic learning—reading, writing, and arithmetic at the foundational level—is not achieved first before building upon it, as experienced in the past. DoSE&L is also strengthening and revamping existing programmes such as the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan to align it with the recommendations of NEP 2020. It has introduced the national mission to improve learning outcomes through an integrated teacher training programme called NISHTHA (National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement) for teacher development. Other initiatives listed in DoSE&L’s one year achievement report include: The strengthening of vocational education initiatives in Samagra Shiksha; introducing key stage assessments for determining the health of the system and learning outcomes through SAFAL (Structured Assessment for Analysing Learning); the announcement of NDEAR (National Digital Education Architecture), an open, interoperable, evolvable, public digital education infrastructure that will keep pace with the rapid expansion of technology, and improvement of the ease of doing business for educational institutions, amongst others. The DoSE&L, through a steering committee under Dr K. Kasturirangan, is also working closely with the states to implement reforms and develop the State Curricular Frameworks followed by the National Curricular Framework.

Higher education

The situation in higher education, on the other hand, has evolved at a much slower pace. For instance, the four-year undergraduate programme, one of the cornerstones of NEP 2020 to provide holistic and multidisciplinary education or liberal education, has not yet been included in the list of degrees approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC). One of the critical responsibilities of the Department of Higher Education, as envisaged by NEP 2020, is the setting up of a new framework for the regulation and maintenance of standards in higher education as per its constitutional mandate. The new framework envisages that distinct, independent, and empowered bodies will perform the separate roles of regulation, accreditation, funding, and standard setting. Such segregation of functions is necessary to eliminate overlapping jurisdiction, create checks and balances within the system, minimise conflicts of interest, and eliminate concentration of power. NEP 2020 stipulates the formation of these four structures as independent verticals within the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), an umbrella institution, to ensure their working synergy. HECI and its associated verticals will come into being through an Act of Parliament, but there are no indications that such a bill is ready yet.

One of the critical responsibilities of the Department of Higher Education, as envisaged by NEP 2020, is the setting up of a new framework for the regulation and maintenance of standards in higher education as per its constitutional mandate.

Many other legislations will also require modifications, both at the Centre and at the State levels, to achieve the flexibility provided by NEP 2020. These include the acts governing the various types of universities and those that mandate the roles of the professional councils such as the Pharmacy Council of India, the Council of Architecture, and others. Over time, many of the latter have assumed regulatory roles, resulting in universities dealing with multiple sets of often conflicting regulations. NEP 2020 requires that these bodies eschew regulation and confine themselves to standard-setting for the curriculum, outcomes, and ethics of their respective disciplines, but the councils are likely to require a lot of persuasion to comply. In a contrarian move, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has, beginning January 2021, taken upon itself the role of regulating all aspects of legal education, including post-graduate, doctoral, executive, clinical, and vocational education. Most of these have nothing to do with BCI's statutory mandate of recognising enrollment qualification for advocates. This self-empowerment also comes at a time when most students of law are taking up careers outside the bar, in the areas of corporate law, international trade and finance, and international arbitration, amongst others. NEP 2020’s decision to deviate from the vision of the draft NEP 2019 and exclude medical and legal education from the proposed new regulatory architecture may need to be revisited in the future since it prevents the full benefit of the new regulatory architecture from accruing to multidisciplinary HEIs. NEP 2020’s recommendation of giving autonomy to all colleges and universities over time rests heavily on the ability of the accreditation framework to certify all HEIs at least once every five years. This requirement poses a critical implementation challenge due to the complexity of the task and the speed of execution it necessitates. The HECI bill and its implementation plan must contain a blueprint for revamping the accreditation system urgently. There is no evidence in the public domain to suggest that work on this vital task has begun with the necessary urgency.

NEP 2020’s decision to deviate from the vision of the draft NEP 2019 and exclude medical and legal education from the proposed new regulatory architecture may need to be revisited in the future since it prevents the full benefit of the new regulatory architecture from accruing to multidisciplinary HEIs.

Meanwhile, UGC, the present regulator-cum-funding agency, has initiated significant changes to support the NEP. The Academic Bank of Credits (ABC), which will allow students to accumulate credits and earn various degrees over time, has been rolled out, albeit for only a few institutions. Accumulation of credits is likely to be a boon to poor students, especially women, who are often forced to drop out for economic and social reasons. The ABC will support students’ mobility across HEIs and support lifelong learning for the youth and adults—the need of the hour in a fast-changing technological world. Other UGC initiatives include guidelines for multiple exits and multiple entry in HEIs, apprenticeship-embedded degree programmes, and guidelines for the internationalisation of higher education, amongst others. Just as the 1986 policy was accompanied by a Programme of Action (PoA) 1992, it may be worth preparing a PoA for NEP 2020 to facilitate faster implementation. Overall, 2021 saw HEIs and all other stakeholders trying and understanding the spirit of the policy and making their own implementation plans in the policy’s intended spirit. The year ends on an exciting note as we look forward to many of the transformative changes that will be on the anvil in 2022.

• Domestic Politics and Governance
• Education
• India
• ABC
• BRI
• clinical
• doctoral
• executive
• HEI
• NEP 2020
• post-graduate
• Vocational Education

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