NEP 2020 – What’s New for School Education
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has proposed fundamental changes in school education by introducing 3 years of pre-schooling in the existing 10+2 structure. The new policy has also done away with the rigid separation between different academic streams, which means that students will no longer be segregated in Science, Arts or Commerce streams. In addition to this, students will get vocational training with internship options from Class 6 onwards.
In regards to improving the teaching-learning progress, the NEP 2020 has made provisions for a tracking mechanism to assess learning outcomes of students. To promote teaching as an early career choice, the existing teacher’s training programme will be made into a 4-year integrated B.Ed. degree. Currently, B. Ed is a 2-year degree programme.
Below are the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 highlights regarding the school education in India.
Serial No. | NEP 2020 – Changes in the School Education System |
1 | The current 10+2 system of education will be replaced by a new 5+3+3+4 structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively. The new system will have 12 years of schooling with three years of Anganwadi/ pre schooling. |
2 | NEP 2020 aims at 100% Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in school education by 2030. |
3 | More than 2 crores out-of-school children will be brought back into the mainstream through an open schooling system. |
4 | No rigid separation between science and arts, curricular and extracurricular activities, vocational and academic streams in schools |
5 | Vocational Education to start from Class 6 with Internships |
6 | Teaching up to at least Grade 5 to be in mother tongue/regional language |
7 | Learning outcome of students will be tracked through a new 360-degree Holistic Progress Card |
8 | The B.Ed programme duration will be changed from existing 2 years to 4 years by making it an integrated programme (with graduation combined). By 2030, the minimum qualification requirement for teaching will be a 4-year degree in B.Ed. |
The much talked about change in NEP 2020 is the overhauling of the existing schooling structure. The new policy has introduced a 3-year pre-schooling as part of the new schooling structure. This is aimed at putting more emphasis on early childhood care and development. The key NEP elements regarding the schooling structure are listed below:
The National Education Policy 2020 aims at bringing school education access to all. For this, the policy states that the government will develop infrastructural support and innovative educational centres to bring back school dropouts into the mainstream. In the NEP 2020, the government has targeted to bring back about 2 crore out-of-school children into the mainstream. To realise this vision, the government will take following actions:
The National Education Policy has also removed barriers of subject streams (arts, science & commerce) that restricts students of one stream from choosing any particular subject from another stream. Also, the vocational courses will begin at school itself – right from Class 6.
Now, students will be able to select a set of subjects that seem interesting to them, instead of compulsorily choosing a particular set of subjects under one stream.
This flexibility in selection of subjects, according to the NEP document, will lead to critical thinking among students and greater focus on experiential learning.
To implement this, a new and comprehensive National Curricular Framework for School Education, NCFSE 2020-21, will be developed by the NCERT.
As per the NEP 2020 document, students will have increased flexibility and choice of subjects. There will be no rigid separations between arts and sciences, curricular and extra-curricular activities, or vocational and academic streams.
The National Education Policy has also emphasised on learning outcomes for school students. Instead of half-yearly or annual exams only, the students will now have regular assessment.
To make the assessment and tracking of teaching-learning outcomes transparent, a new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), will be set up as a standard-setting body.
According to the NEP, the assessment will be more focussed on testing higher-order skills, such as analysis, critical thinking, and conceptual clarity. In the new schooling structure, all students will take school examinations in Grades 3, 5, and 8 followed by Board exams for Grades 10 and 12.
The National Education Policy 2020 has also intervened in how teachers will be trained, recruited and evaluated in the new set up. To standardise the quality of teaching in schools, a common National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by the National Council for Teacher Education by 2022, in consultation with NCERT, SCERTs, teachers and expert organizations.
The promotion for teachers in schools will be based on their performance on administrative and academic assignments.
The NEP 2020 also paves the way for a greater level of collaboration among institutions which are geographically close to each other. A cluster-wise resource pool will be created that will comprise infrastructure, academic libraries and a strong professional teacher community.
Further, like higher education, the NEP 2020 makes provision for policy making, regulation, operations and academic matters in school education as well. As per the policy documents, the States/UTs will set up an independent State School Standards Authority (SSSA). Also, a separate school accreditation body will be set up to assess the quality in schools.
Rajasthan scholarship – Applicable exclusively for the students of Rajasthan state, the Government of Rajasthan with…
SJE Scholarship Portal is a state-level online portal for the students of Rajasthan to provide…
Delhi Scholarship – The Government of Delhi offers various scholarships to the domiciled students of…
Jharkhand scholarship – The students, who are permanent residents of Jharkhand state are open to…
AICTE JK Scholarship, also known as the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS), J&K is…
New Delhi, 3 March 2021 - Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) opened the OPENMAT-XLIX…
New Delhi, 3 March 2021 – The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has introduced…
Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana or KVPY as it is popularly known has been in existence…
HDFC Bank Parivartan’s ECS Scholarship 2021-22 is a distinctive scholarship programme offered by the HDFC…
UP scholarship status is one of the key features of UP scholarship portal (Scholarship &…
National Scholarship Portal (NSP) is a digital scholarship platform which carries multiple scholarships offered by…
Rolls-Royce Unnati Scholarships for Women Engineering Students, offered by Rolls-Royce India Private Limited supports the…