Because education is enshrined in the constitution of India as a basic right, policies and laws are laid down time and again to regulate it. India has been a spring of knowledge and learning since ancient times; world’s first universities were based in the country. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is viewed as well-planned comprehensive framework for elementary education to higher education as well as vocational training in both rural and urban India.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India's first Minister of Education, had envisaged strong central government control over education across the country with a uniform educational system. The Union government established the University Education Commission in 1948, the Secondary Education commission (1952–1953), University Grants Commission (UGC) in 1956. In 2020, the Government of India (GOI) announced a new National Education Policy (NEP), replacing the National Policy on Education in vogue from1986.

Agreed that there is no harm in formulating new polices to live up to the expectations of the changing times,  yet what is noteworthy is that the new NEP has come after more than three decades, an indication that this key social sector did not get the due degree of attention.  Interestingly, the new policy was long overdue. The reason being that multiple flaws in the education system needed immediate attention.

Broadly speaking, the NEP 2020 revolves around the introduction of a 5+3+3+4 pattern of school education. This novel academic set-up not only replaces the long standing 10+2 + 3 system but also acknowledges that the latter set up has seen its better days and does not bring about the physical, mental and emotional development of the school-going children — all together.

Especially emotional development mostly remains unachieved. Just scold slightly a student of the elementary level or above, he/she feels very upset. No control on the emotional display. Unfortunately, some commit suicide to avoid the pain of a failure.  Schooling and education need to teach children how and where to show emotions. Control on emotions is essential to face life.

That the child at a government school will start learning, under the new NEP, from nursery and kindergarten classes and later on enter the formal school education, is a productive step forward: this pre-primary stage will not only prepare a child from a government school for learning basics like alphabet and numbers but will also enable him/her to be at par with the child from a private school. Earlier, without the pre primary stage , government school students were at a disadvantage — the disadvantage that enabled their counterparts in private schools to excel in the academic achievements.

For a beginner (first standard student), basic knowledge is essential because it shows the child’s mental development and facilitates his/her smooth transition to the other classes. With no provision of pre-primary classes, under the old NEP, at a government school, children mostly underachieve or underperform while a child from a private school does well and displays brilliant performance in the subsequent classes.

For the successful implementation of the new pattern, there is a pressing need of developing the infrastructure and providing a trained staff of teachers at the Aangan wadi centers. Apart from this, a monitoring mechanism is essential to strictly have the protocol acted upon.

The new NEP also proposes to abrogate the pattern of examination being run by the boards of school education.  As per the exiting norms, a board evaluates the student’s rote memory of contents, not the real competencies of learning things.

However, the new NEP envisions testing the real competency of students through a different pattern of examination: the holistic progress of students. It will assess students comprehensively before issuing to them the Holistic Progress Card (HPC) at the end of an academic year.

HPC is an assessment tool. Its beauty lies in gifting a say to the students, their peers and parents as well in the evaluation process. A student's critical thinking ability, emotional development and academic progress — all will be assessed. Therefore, HPC actually is a handsome aid aiming to work with a student's three H’s: heart, head and hand.

Although critics say that the new exam pattern will not work on the ground level because mass copying and cramming have established deep roots in the education system, it is worthwhile to mention that testing the mental horizon and competency of students in terms of understanding the contents looks to be a powerful shift. Such a significant move will end the era of cramming; it will also prepare a student to read contents thoroughly, feeding him/her with a tonic of motivation and eagerness to understand contents better.

There is another key provision in the new NEP: making Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree mandatory for the teaching profession. This degree in actuality trains a candidate for the teaching –learning process. The professional degree equips the candidate with various techniques and methods which are essential for teaching effectively and efficiently. A teacher having completed B.Ed from a reputed college possibly needs no 'capacity building trainings '.

His/her teaching proves excellent through the application of the qualification from the degree. However, there are certain prominent points which merit attention. The NEP 2020 should seek the improvement and empowerment of teachers, in particular of school teachers. Schooling lays the foundation of a child’s education and for that teachers are the frontline personnel; but school teaching is a low profile job with the teachers’ status witnessing a constant decline. A school teacher struggles to run family and meet its basic needs while an employee drawing low salary than that of a teacher lives inside luxuries and in esteem.

Pertinently, awaited is a good transfer policy for 98% school teachers who were recruited on the pattern of Rehber-e-Taleem (ReT) scheme , starting from the first decade of 2000 A.D. We have about 70 thousand Ret pattern teachers in the School education department in J&K. All of them have been working at their first appointment schools since the implementation of the ReT scheme in 2000 AD. Many such teachers say that this long, long stay at the same school has demotivated them and induced the feelings of boredom and inferiority in them. Point to note is that only these teachers work from the primary to the middle level with one or two teachers, whose services are transferable, from the selection boards.

For the new NEP to be more effective, it is vital that teachers at all levels are empowered, they are given better working conditions and their issues in terms of status and salaries are resolved on priority. Plus, more infrastructures should be provided to schools; teaching staff should be rationalized on priority. Trainings, if at all needed, be impartially imparted to every teacher of all categories through the trainers who are knowledgeable, efficient and working at schools (not out of schools).

A person not working at school for years together may be efficient but he/she is unlikely to prove an effective trainer for a few reasons. One, the person is off the school and so out of touch with the ground realities of the school/class room atmosphere. Two, the person is obviously not in know of the issues and challenges which surface upon implementing the curriculum. Three, he/she might emphasize on the entities whose execution is unnecessary or unsuitable at schools. Off - school experience by a teacher does not guarantee his/her training expertise.

To implement the new NEP — a well-defined progressive education policy — strict adherence to the codal norms is the key (at the lower rung).  It can prove a cornerstone of economic and social progress.

 (Author is a teacher by profession and RK columnist. He can be reached on:Sheikhshabir518@gmail.com)