“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”  Benjamin Franklin

National Educational Policy is a policy the Government of India proposes to promote education amongst the people of India.

Education came into the picture as a matter of concern just after our India became an independent nation. Since the day India got its independence, several discussions and programs are taking place to solve the problem of education in India.

It has been a long-term issue regarding a uniform education system. The first Minister of Education, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, had proposed a strong Central Government control over the education system and tried to maintain a uniform educational flow throughout the nation. Moving on to the Union Government, it established the first Education Commission after Independence, which is also known as the University Education Commission in 1948-49.

It was basically set up for the improvement and reorganization of University Education. Then comes the Secondary Education Commission and Kothari Commission. All these commissions have only one soul’s purpose. They all aim to have a uniform modernized education system all over the nation.  

National Educational Policy is a policy the Government of India proposes to promote education amongst the people of India. This policy is a canvas that covers the education, starting from the elementary to the college level.

This holds both the rural and urban India. The first NEP was proclaimed in 1968 by Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi announced the second NEP on 1986. The NEP of 1986 was revised in 1992 by PV Narasimha Rao, who was the Prime Minister for that period. Then finally after 34 years, the third NEP was promulgated on July 31st 2020 under the Prime Ministership of Narendra Modi.

NEP of 1968

This NEP was established when Indira Gandhi was our Prime Minister. National Educational Policy on Education in 1968 was based on the recommendations of the education commission of 1964-1966. They named this as the “radical restructuring”. This policy continued from 1968 to 1986. They followed this for 20 years.

• Equal Opportunities and Education

NEP of 1968 has put its concern on various aspects. The most important and striking feature to be considered is they should provide the equal educational opportunities all over the nation. This was activated to achieve the national integration and development in culture and economy.

• Mandatory Education

Moving on to this point, itself is self-explanation term. This policy announced a compulsory education for children up to 14yrs as specified by the constitution of India. This policy also keeps the specialized trainings and qualifications of the teachers on a priority scale.

• Three-Language Formula

Several controversial issues came up with this simple three words. Different person has given different opinions on this topic.

But the National Educational Policy that came after the Kothari Commission Report made this “Three-Language Formula” a policy. They announced this policy to be followed by the people of India. This three-language formula was based on three sections.

The first section comprises all the students who were from class one to four. Students from class one to four would study in their mother tongue.

The students from class five to eight would study two languages. One language is the regional language and the second one is English or Hindi depending upon the region.

The students who belong from non-Hindi states would make Hindi as a compulsory subject, and the students who belong from the Hindi states should put one new language as a compulsory one. But this was not implemented, the way they decided it.

This policy had created a lot of issues among various states, i.e. people of Tamil Nadu had adopted two language policy. This three-language formula had proved unsuccessful, as it had provided different education across the nation.

• Sanskrit Teaching

This policy had played a vital role by encouraging the teaching of Sanskrit language, which is the most important part of our India’s culture and heritage.

• National Income

This was suggested by both Kothari Commission and the NEP of 1968 that 6% of national income should be spent on education.

NEP of 1986

The National Education Policy of 1986, Rajiv Gandhi had introduced the new National Education Policy. This policy had paid a great attention on the removal of disparities. This policy has also emphasized on educational opportunities.

• Educational Opportunities

They put extra focus on education for Indian women, schedule tribes, and schedule caste people. It had also given facilities like scholarship, adult education, hiring a number of faculties from SCs.

• Development of Educational Institutions

To meet the social integration, they set new institutions along with housing services.

• Child Centred Approach

Child Centred Approach is nothing but promoting welfare of every child. This approach had basically encouraged children to learn what they actually wanted. Children should have their own choices about their learning matter.

• Operation Blackboards

This operation is a centrally sponsored programme which got started in 1987.Operational Blackboard was all about providing minimum essential facilities to all the primary schools of the country. The primary aim of this scheme was to provide the students of primary education with all necessary institutional equipment to facilitate their education.

• Distance Education

Keeping in mind about the women’s education, NEP 1986 had emphasized on distance learning program. National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) was established in November 1989 as an autonomous organization in pursuance of NEP 1986 by the Ministry of Education, Government of India.

NIOS had provided a number of Vocational, Life Enrichment and community-oriented Course. In additional, it offered Elementary Level courses through Open Basic Education Programmes (OBE). IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) which got launch on 1985 was also started during that period and it was recommended by Rajiv Gandhi.

• 10+2+3 Education structure

Previously, the system used to have a unique style which used to have 12 years of school, then two years of an intermediate degree along with additional 2years for a bachelor’s degree. Some other states also used to follow 12 years of school and 3 years of college off for a bachelor’s degree.

Here comes the 10+2+3 Education structure, which was introduced under NEP of 1986. That had included several drastic changes, which had proved very much effective for the generation and continued for a long period.

This formula states that there should be two divisions in the schooling education, instead of the integrated one. In the first stage, when the child starts its schooling at kindergarten at four, he would continue his education till 10 years and had to take a secondary school certificate examination.

In the second stage, he would take two more years to finish his high school certificate examination. Then comes the third stage where he would take the bachelor’s degree by the end of the third year at university. They introduced this system for a uniform education purpose throughout the country.

• Advance Education

Advance education included the study of computer in the schools. They considered information Technology in the list of priority. They bought this advance education in the field to make children aware of all the technical fields.

• Rural University Model

This policy of NEP 1986 is the held responsible for the establishment of Rural University Model, which was based on the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. The key idea behind this model was to promote economic and social development at the rural India.

Modifications on NEP 1986

In 1992, the policy of NEP 1986 was further changed by P. V. Narasimha Rao’s government. Programme of Action (POA) 1992 under the National Education Policy 1986 was proposed to conduct a Common Entrance Examination on all India basis.

This was an all India-based examination for the admission to all professional and technical courses in the country. They held these programmes to maintain the professional standard of the education. This also gave the students to explore more and to reach the level of success. This modification had reduced the burden of both parents and students. Empowerment of women was also kept as a major target. They gave universalization of Elementary Education and Adult Education a great priority.

 National Education Policy 2020

Something which is drastic, dynamic and had taken place after 34years. Here is the National Educational Policy 2020. The Ministry of Human Resource Development had planned the New Educational Policy. This policy had taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic. This They announced this policy in July 2020 by the Shri Narendra Modi government.

This policy is totally based on filiocentric. The policy which is only concern about children. Basically, the future study plan is planned by parents and teachers. But this time, things will happen in a reverse manner. According to the new policy of NEP 2020, a child can decide his future study and career decisions by his own.

• It gives Full freedom in the hands of the students to decide their own future.
• They will provide a same level of education all over the India.
• Middle school students, those who studied till class nine or dropouts will be given a chance to join back to the system.
• They will do the skills increment for the students from class six to college level.
• They will issue 360-degree report card for the students, which will not only consider the subjects mark but also will judge the overall personality of the students.
• The Central and the states will work together to increase    the public investment in Education sector to reach 6% of GDP.
• Critical thinking is a major part which checks the mental thinking capacity of a student. So, it will give students the chance to actively take part in the classroom programmes. This will allow them to ask their doubts to the teachers, and this will increase their level of exploring.

Previously schools were divided into two divisions. One which is known to all i.e. Anganwadi. Anganwadi is usually run by the government for the children from 3yrs-6yrs.Anganwadi is like keeping the child so that they can get ready to join school.

In private schools we name it as prenursery and nursery. Whereas, the second division starts from students who are 6yrs to 18yrs are sent to school for their next education.

There were a lot of problems because students who used to be in Anganwadi for 3yrs and they joined schools after that were having problems in learning new things. They could not grab new things easily. So removing this difference, the present policy will put this two divisions under one section. In all together, they will add up both the divisions and the formal schooling will be of 15 years.

• 5+3+3+4 Formula

Let’s take each digit separately and reach to the conclusion of this formula.5 here means the student of 3yrs-8yrs. They will consider as nursery to class 2. According to the research, this is the age where the brain absorbs all the basic elements of education.

This is a brain formation age. The basic elements include alphabets, numeric digits, etc. This 5 year is for the fundamental learning purpose. The next 3 years is for the primary school where students belong to class 3,4,5. This is the age where they will give actively based learning.

Moving on to the next 3years, which will be considered as the middle school (Class 6,7,8). This is the time where most of the parents think what their child should do in their future.

The age where parents want either their child should work or study. Here they will learn the fundamentals of various subjects. They will provide the concepts of Experimental learning in these 3 years. Finally, moving on the last 4 years (class 9,10,11,12).

This year is so crucial for all the students and the parents. Some students want to be a doctor while their parents want them as an Engineer. These argument goes on. It’s like a buffet where we have to eat within the limit and we can’t have additional items.

For example, if we are only good at Biology and Chemistry then we have to study Physics as it’s a complete package. This is a major disadvantage which students face. But this policy will change the buffet system into a menu card where you can add and subtract the items according to your own wish.

• Curricular and Co-Curricular Activities

Activities that take place inside the laboratory, classrooms are Curricular activities whereas the activities which are the physical activities. According to the present NCP 2020, both curricular and co-curricular activities will be put together.

This was not considered as a subject. But now, these activities will get consider as a compulsory subject in our education system. We will not consider them as an extra subject, but they will allocate marks for it. The most important thing here is, students can select their own favorite activities.

• Quit Option

This policy will give students an exit option.

If someone has got an admission in an Engineering college and after one year of study, he/she is not any more interested in that professional course, they can apply for the quit option.

They will get one year degree certificate with some academic credit. This way your time will not get waste and you can study again according to your wish and your field.

We all look forward with a clear mindset that our upcoming Educational Policy 2020 will bring a significant change to our nation.