Distinguishing Features of the New Education Policy 2020

For several years now, the education system of India was questioned for its effectiveness.

Both the government and its people have been well aware that the global education

development agenda requires to rethink, restrategize, and redesign the entire education

system. Further with the rapidly changing employment landscape and global ecosystem, it is

becoming critical to assess what the young minds learn and how they learn. To solve these

challenges and reconfigure the education system, on 29th July, the government introduced

the New Education Policy 2020 (NEP).

Let’s take a look at some of its key features:

The 5+3+3+4 design: The 10+2 structure gets replaced by the 5+3+3+4 model. As per

NEP, the curricular and pedagogical structure of school education will be reconfigured to

make it responsive and relevant to the developmental needs and interests of learners at

different stages, corresponding to the age ranges of 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years,

respectively.

Choice Based Credit System: The young minds may get a break from traditional career

paths. The NEP proposes that students will be given increased flexibility and choice of

subjects to study, particularly in secondary school - including subjects in physical education,

the arts and crafts, and vocational skills– so that they can design their own paths of study

and life plans.

Development of the creative potential: NEP aims to move away from the culture of rote

learning as is largely present today. The policy states that curriculum content will be reduced

in each subject to its core essentials, to make space for critical thinking and more holistic,

inquiry-based, discovery-based, discussion-based, and analysis based learning. Experiential

learning at all stages will also be introduced, along with art and sports integration.

Multilingualism: The NEP proposes, wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at

least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother

tongue/local language/regional language. Multilingualism and disseminating learning

concepts, especially at the foundational stage, may help bridge the gaps that exist between

the language spoken by the child and the medium of teaching.

Focus on essential skills: In recent times the need for behavioral competencies like

resilience, agility, innovation, and adaptability and the demand for digital literacy has

increased. NEP has hence proposed to enhance the scope of learning beyond subject-

matters and made learning these skills essential. These skills include scientific temper and

evidence-based thinking; creativity and innovativeness; sense of aesthetics and art; and also

vocational exposure and skills; digital literacy, coding, and computational thinking, among

others.