09, Feb 2023
Realizing one's full potential, creating a fair and just society, and advancing global progress all depend on education. The secret to India's continuous rise and leadership on the international stage in terms of economic growth, social fairness and equality, scientific advancement, national integration, and cultural preservation is ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality education.
The best method to develop and utilize our country's many talents and resources for the benefit of the individual, society, the nation, and the world is through universal high-quality education. Over the next ten years, India's youth population will be the greatest in the world, and the future of our nation depends on our capacity to offer chances for high-quality education.
By implementing significant reforms that bring the highest quality, equity, and integrity into the system, from early childhood care and education through higher education, the gap between the current stage of learning outcomes and what is necessary can be bridged. By 2040, India must aim to develop a world-class educational system with equal access to the best instruction for all students, regardless of their social or economic status.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which aspires to answer the numerous expanding developmental imperatives of our country, is the first education policy of the 21st century. In order to construct a new system that is in line with the aspirational goals of 21st-century education and builds upon India's traditions and value systems, this strategy suggests the modification and revamping of all parts of the educational framework, including its regulation and governance.
According to NEP 2020, learning should be holistic, integrated, engaging, and enjoyable. There have been significant structural changes in curriculum and pedagogy in schools, colleges, and universities.
Some of the prominent ones are listed below:
1. Restructuring School Curriculum and Pedagogy in a New 5+3+3+4 Design
The curriculum and pedagogical framework of school education will be changed to better react to the interests and demands of learners at various developmental stages, which correspond to the age groups of 3–8, 8–11, 11–14, and 14–18 years, respectively. A 5+3+3+4 design, consisting of the foundational stage, preparatory stage, middle stage, and secondary stage, will therefore serve as the basis for the curriculum, pedagogical structure, and curricular framework for school education.
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The foundational stage will last for five years and include ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) curriculum and pedagogy, as well as flexible, multi-level, activity-based learning. A three-year educational program called the preparatory stage will expand on the foundational stage's play, discovery, and activity-based pedagogical and curricular approaches.
The middle stage will consist of three years and will continue the preparatory stage's pedagogy and curriculum while adding subject teachers to facilitate learning and discussion of more abstract ideas. Building on the subject-oriented pedagogical and curricular style of the middle stage, the secondary stage will consist of four years of multidisciplinary study, but with more depth and critical thinking.
2. Holistic Development of Learners
The main goal of all stages of curriculum and pedagogy reform will be to move away from the culture of rote learning that is prevalent today and toward actual understanding and learning how to learn. The goal of education will be to enhance students' cognitive abilities as well as their character and create whole, well-rounded people who possess important 21st-century skills.
In the end, education aids in the manifestation of knowledge as the perfection that is already ingrained in a person. The entire curriculum and methodology will be reoriented to meet these important objectives. At every learning stage, from preschool through higher education, specific sets of values and skills will be chosen for integration.
3. Reduce Curriculum Content to Improve Critical Thinking and Essential Learning
To allow for critical thinking and more all-encompassing, inquiry-based, discovery-based, discussion-based, and analysis-based learning, the curriculumcontent in each topic will be condensed to the core essentials. The focus will be placed on important concepts, ideas, applications, and problem-solving in the required content.
The classroom sessions will frequently include more enjoyable, creative, collaborative , and exploratory activities for students to engage in deeper and more immersive learning. Questions will be encouraged. Teaching and learning will be performed in a more interactive manner.
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4. Incorporate Experiential Learning
Experiential learning will be implemented at all levels, with studies of the connections between various subjects as well as hands-on learning, education that incorporates the arts and sports, and pedagogy centered on telling stories, among others. Competency-based learning and education will become more prevalent in classroom settings in order to bridge the achievement gap for learning outcomes.
A cross-curricular teaching strategy called art-integration leverages numerous facets and expressions of art and culture as the cornerstone for concept learning across subjects. As a part of the emphasis on experiential learning, art-integrated education will be incorporated into classroom activities in order to foster a positive learning environment as well as to instill Indian culture and art into the teaching and learning process at all levels.
5. Empower Students Through Flexibility in Course Choices
Particularly in secondary school, students will have more flexibility and options for the subjects they can take, including courses in physical education, arts and crafts, and vocational skills, allowing them to create their own course of study and future plans. There won't be a clear distinction between "academic" and "vocational" streams, between "curricular," "extracurricular," or "co-curricular," between "arts," "humanities," and "sciences."
Each of the four levels of schooling may consider switching to a semester or any other system that allows the inclusion of shorter modules or courses that are taught on alternate days in order to allow exposure to more subjects and enable greater flexibility, depending on what may be possible in different regions.
6. Multilingualism and the Power of Language
It is common knowledge that young children acquire and comprehend complex ideas more rapidly when speaking their mother tongue. Wherever possible, until at least Grade 5, but preferably until Grade 8 and beyond, the local, regional, or home language will be the medium of instruction.
Children will be exposed to multiple languages early on (but with a strong focus on the mother tongue), right from the foundational stage, because research demonstrates that children pick up languages extremely quickly between the ages of 2 and 8 and that multilingualism has great cognitive benefits to young students.
The three-language formula will continue to be used while keeping in mind the requirements of the Constitution, the aspirations of the people and regions, and the necessity to promote both national unity and multilingualism. The free-language formula will have more flexibility, nevertheless, and no State will have a language imposed upon it.
To enable students to think and speak about science and mathematics both in their native tongue and in English, every effort will be made to create high-quality bilingual textbooks and teaching-learning resources.
Other classical languages spoken in India, such as classical Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia, also have immensely rich literature. Additionally, in order to maintain the vitality of these regional languages and their literature, other regional languages will be made available to students in schools as choices, maybe as online courses.
Foreign languages like Korean, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Spanish, and others will also be offered at the secondary level in addition to excellent offerings in English and Indian languages, allowing students to broaden their knowledge of the world and mobility in accordance with their individual interests and aspirations.
The teaching of all languages will be improved by using cutting-edge and experiential techniques, gamification, and apps, as well as by incorporating the cultural aspects of the languages—such as movies, plays, storytelling, poetry, and music—and by making connections with various pertinent topics through personal experiences.
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7. Curricular Integration of Crucial Subjects, Skills, and Capacities
All students should study specific courses, skills, and capacities in order to become good, innovative, successful, adaptive, and productive humans in today's quickly changing world, even while students must have a great deal of choice in choosing their unique curricula. These include scientific temperament, problem-solving abilities, aesthetic sensibility, creativity, oral and written communication, fitness and sports.
It is acknowledged that mathematics will play a crucial part in the future of the nation and in ensuring India's leadership in the many forthcoming sectors involving artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, etc. So, beginning with the foundational stage, puzzles and games will place a greater focus on mathematical and computational thinking. The middle stage will see the introduction of coding.
8. National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE)
The NCERT will create a new, comprehensive NCFSE 2020–21, based on the NEP 2020 principles, frontline curriculum requirements, and discussions with all stakeholders, including State Governments, Ministries, relevant Central Government departments, and other expert bodies. It will be made available in all regional languages. From this point on, the NCFSE document will be reviewed and changed once every five to ten years while taking into account the online curriculum.
9. National Textbooks with Local Content and Flavor
There must be corresponding modifications in school textbooks to go along with the curricula's reduced content, improved flexibility, and renewed emphasis on learning for the sake of learning rather than rote memorization. All textbooks must strive to include the fundamental information that is regarded crucial on a national level, as well as any desirable nuances and supplemental information based on regional contexts and demands.
The goal of the NEP 2020 policy is to build not only good citizens but also mold them into better global citizens. Its main focus is on nation-building. The addition of vocational education to the curriculum would enable the student to pursue their interests and improve their prospects of finding employment. The policy aims to digitize education in India. Educational ERP companies are now responsible for achieving the goals and principles of NEP 2020 and guide and assist institutions better in restructuring the changes in curriculum and pedagogy.