We are all aware of the latest announcement of the #National #Education #Policy, issued by the newly named Ministry Of Education, Government of India. The NEP is based on the Policy stated in late 1986, which is derived from the tried and tested academic structure and systems of the ages of #Takshashila, #Nalanda, today’s #Japan, Dutch countries and other better managed education systems. It is certain to say that the presence of a governing strategy and the list of objectives which will help alter the existing infrastructure and education system to evolve along the required guidelines. this article is solely derived from my assessment of the NEP policy document (66 pages). It is available in the website of the Ministry. I have made every attempt to keep this article apolitical and try to gauge the implications of the new policy from the point of view of the students, teachers, parents and of course, the government’s credibility to act on it. Also, I will not try to highlight much on the well-known facts which has already been highlighted by the Ministry and reiterated by the mainstream news media.
An outlook from a student’s perspective
NEP establishes a legal prerogative to cluster schools within every city/ settlement. It has also mandated the twinning of the public and private schools/ institutions. Along with it, comes the equal significance being given to each subject. The city where most of us have grown up, there are 10-12 schools with unequal share of resources. Now let’s consider that we make 2 clusters of schools from these individual schools. Due to the clustering, all resources and group of mentors, could operate in focused centers in the city. It would be amazing to see that each cluster could have a School of Arts, School of Sciences, School of Athletics and Sports, School of Mathematics and Coding etc. Obviously, the students and their parents will have the freedom to choose the subjects of their interests and attend each school accordingly. A walk down the halls of such schools in every city, wherein the students could immerse themselves for an academic life for 10 years, is going to be breath taking! I could imagine the urge that each of us would have to repeat our schooling days, if we had such a chance.
The significance of such issues lies in the manner of reorganization. Every city already has faculties and mentors capable of grooming students capable in arts, music, mathematics and what not. However, all such resources are segregated among each individual school. Clustering and reorganizing resources will give an unimaginable leap bound for each student.
An outlook from the teacher’s perspective
In today’s world, profession of teaching is a job for the left outs. The profession does not give any scope of financial and career growth which can be compared with any other white-collar job. NEP helps establish a Career tracking, where the working of each mentor is to be digitally tracked and assessed. Certainly, the parameters will be modified as per the governing testing agencies, the likes of Teacher Eligibility tests. Considering the above illustration of clustering, every mentor now has the capability to groom himself to the top of the hierarchy in his school of excellence. So, a cluster is to be run by the chairpersons/ directors of Schools of excellences established all around in the city cluster. So, a Teacher in the profession of music can aspire to head his school, have an equal say in every matter, compared to a teacher who aspires to lead the School of Mathematics and Coding. Imagine the strengths of the group of teachers, who interact and mentor a batch of students every day, for the entire day for an entire period of 2-3 months and has all available infrastructure to facilitate their teaching of mathematics or physical fitness. Such exposure will only facilitate the students to inculcate the subjects as skills into their way of life and help them develop these skills into hobbies. I hope you do recognize that such an environment will ensure teachers’ focus on career development and not restrict them to malpractices such as conducting tuition and giving privilege to certain students. A point shall be noted that establishment of such fundamental Schools of Excellences in every city deprive another lucrative market, the real loophole in our educations system, the system of coaching.
An outlook from a parent’s perspective
The above-mentioned policy change brings minimal changes to the available physical environment in any given city. It is but obvious that all members schools of any cluster will have to be made equally capable to absorb every child and student in the subject of their choice. However, given the renewed approach to the change in education, the parent mother will end up seeing her daughter study in a campus city because of the nature of the cluster. The students’ mode of transportation being the same, do not add any extra money for her. On the contrary, all the girls and boys will be educated with a focused approach in their schools. Considering the continued mentoring for the student for many years, the roles of coaching centers become obsolete. Plus, the top educational institutions will have to enable themselves with more content and amenities to present themselves as privileged centers of excellence. It is certain that parents will have a social comfort over their savings.
The Government’s credibility to implement the policy
The Government has continued to introduce reforms and policies which engage with the existing system and reorganizing them down to its’ very threads. It is certain to state that such similar programs, to the likes of Smart City, Atal Awaas, Digital India etc. are seeing light of the day. Certainly, these policies are dynamic and well organized with the available resources. It is definitely a U turn, when previous ministries under the likes of Sibbals and Moilys diluted the academic acumen for political consideration, with respect to the suicide of students. These policy reforms are laid out with an intention to achieve their objectives of sustainable development goals by 2030. Down to the very day, we continue to call ourselves an experiment. Because we are so uncertain if we are successful or are we failing.
Conclusion
Keeping focus on the title and the studying generations, it is certain that we have just done OK up until now. It is only fair to doubt on our fate because we still believe that many things are not working right. With these developments we can be certain that many things are moving in the right direction. Education system reform should continue to evolve with time and this is much needed.This is the first step.
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