Frontlist Education | Cabinet approves new National Education Policy for the first time in 34 years

Frontlist Education | Cabinet approves new National Education Policy for the first time in 34 years
on Jul 29, 2020

The new National Education Policy, NEP has got the approval of the Union Cabinet today- the MHRD would now be referred to as Education Ministry.

The New Education Policy, NEP has been approved by the Union Cabinet today. The announcement would be made later today.  Also the Ministry of Human Resource Management, MHRD has been renamed as Education Ministry. The students and the educationists can check what to expect from the New National Education Policy here. The Ministry of HRD would now be referred to as the Education Ministry.     The Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' had informed earlier that the new education policy, NEP would be resolving various issues in the education sector. He also said that the new policy would help the youth take up higher education more easily. The announcement is expected by 4 pm today. It would be made by Union Minister Prakash Javedkar and the HRD minister Dr Pokhariyal at the National Media Centre.

New National Education Policy 2020: What to expect

1. NEP suggested the extension of the Right to Education, RTE covering children under age group 3 to 18 year. Currently, the rule applies only to students until the age of 14 years. Thus the new education policy aims to universalize the pre-primary education by 2025 and provide foundational literacy to all by 2025.
2. As per the draft NEP Document released earlier, ‘The draft NEP is based on the foundational pillars access, affordability, equity, quality, and accountability.’ This is expected to be the sentiment of the New Education Policy.
3. In the draft, a 5+3+3+4 curricular and pedagogical structure had been proposed based on the cognitive-developmental stages of the children rather than their age. This further divides the K12 years into Foundational Stage (age 3-8 yrs): 3 years of pre-primary plus Grades 1-2, Preparatory Stage (8-11 years): Grades 3-5, Middle Stage (11-14 years): Grades 6-8 and Secondary Stage (14-18 years): Grades 9-12.
4. The new education policy has provisions that provide the students with increased flexibility and choice of subjects to study across various streams of arts, humanities, sciences, sports, and other vocational subjects.
5. There has been a proposal of multilingual studies too in the NEP. Since children between 2-8 years have the ability to learn languages quickly and multilingualism has cognitive benefits for them, children would be engaged in three languages early on, from the Foundational Stage as per the draft. There would also be a focus on the classical languages of India.
6. The NEP also aims to create a new highest regulating body, the Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog or National Education Commission, that would be headed by the Prime Minister of India.

The National Education Policy was adopted in 1986 and the last time it was modified was in 1992. In May 2019, the government presented the draft NEP which aimed to provide quality education to every child in the age group of 3-18 by 2030. The draft for NEP was checked by the Prime Minister in May 2020 last time.