New Education Policy Progressive But No Clarity On Achieving Reforms: Sisodia
A day after Centre announced National Education Policy 2020, Delhi Government said that it looks progressive but there’s nothing much on how these reforms will be implemented.
“The New Education Policy is a progressive document but has two shortcomings. First, it has some old education practices and there is no clarity on how these reforms will be achieved,” said Manish Sisodia, Minister of Education, Delhi.
It is highly regulated and poorly funded education model. Steps should have taken on improving government schools but this policy encourages private school system, he added.
“The policy emphasises on making early childhood education as part of the formal education is a step in the right direction. Also, foundation learning in mother tongue was also needed,” said Sisodia.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet on Wednesday approved the New Education Policy (NEP), after 34 years that aims to bring in major reforms in school and higher education.
The policy mentioned that 10+2 structure of school curricula is to be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years, respectively.
It has emphasised mother tongue/local language/regional language as the medium of instruction at least till Grade 5.
New Education Policy Envisions Imparting 21st Century, Employability Skills: Kasturirangan
By Ramnath Shenoy Bengaluru, Jul 31 (PTI) The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 envisions imparting 21st century and employability skills with no compromise on quality, says its draft panel head K Kasturirangan.
The idea of a liberal or a multi-disciplinary education at the undergraduate(UG) level and also a type of four-year structuring of secondary education provides a lot of opportunities for picking up many types of skills, which can be even used as employment opportunities, he said.
'These are all part of developing 21st century skills because education embeds these kinds of things to qualify the youngster with respect to what is needed in the 21st century which is communication, creativity, problem-solving and things of that type,' he told PTI in an interview.
The former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the policy was aimed at putting the education in the right track using best of technologies and developments in the field, strengthening institutions, increasing gross intake ratio, among others, and at the same time, ensuring that quality is not compromised.
On the rationale behind introducing four-year UG courses, under the policy, Kasturirangan said it would prepare a youngster to have a comprehensive knowledge base for him to pursue professional interest at a particular level of maturity.
Each one year of that period has the ability to carry forward education to the next step. It also has a provision at that particular point of time that if one wants to stop and engage in a certain profession, he would have developed a certain competence for 'that kind of a thing'.
'So, if you work on that principle, first year you can have a certificate, because you need to show to the employer that you have done something... You get a certificate junior diploma, next level you will get a senior diploma, and then third level, you get a bachelors degree.
'And if you do some research and beef up your knowledge, develop new abilities to deal with issues and problems, you get a fourth year degree, it's a kind of an honours, undergraduate degree with honours,' he added.
The idea is to provide multiplicities of options with a certain level of maturity of knowledge and ability to take up certain responsibilities at those points.
'In four years, we can have reasonable comprehensive education to fulfill what an undergraduate education should.' On abolishing the M.Phil degree, Kasturirangan said it has not had its effectiveness, especially because there were masters degrees whether it is science and arts, and different areas and subjects.
'M.Phil has not been able to compete with them (masters) but at the same time I think in a sense one finds when you have a better way to get a degree with a better quality of knowledge and a better ability to carry out a profession, we think M.Phil does not play that role today,' he said.
Therefore, it will be more appropriate to put this role to other masters degrees that are already existing, rather than having a M.Phil which is a little diffused in terms of its ultimate outcome, Kasturirangan said.
On the policy envisioning a childs mother tongue being used as the medium of instruction till Class 5, the space scientist noted that Indias English-spoken population is 15-16 per cent only, which is not a big number.
'Our idea of making sure that the mother tongue is used because the child from the day it is born engages its communication with the outside world in the mother tongue.
'Because of that the brains ability to respond to mother tongue as internal communication is much more effective than any other means,' he said.
After a few years, when the child gets into a English-based education, the effectiveness of the brain to comprehend cannot be at a level where mother tongue based comprehension has reached in terms of maturity.
'So, we think it's better to go for your mother tongue (as a medium of instruction). And it's more natural for a child to pick up ideas, new science and mathematics through their mother tongue than working through another foreign language. There is enough evidence for this kind of effectiveness of using language for learning,' he said.
That's why the panel has recommended mother tongue or alternatively the home-spoken language, or if it is not home-spoken language, it can be local language, or regional language as medium of instruction till class 5.
However, he added: 'That doesn't prevent you from learning English, master English and make sure that if you want to further pursue your career where English is more critical, the policy certainly has a provision to take care of that.
The NEP approved by the Union Cabinet at a meeting presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday replaces the 34-year-old National Policy on Education framed in 1986 and is aimed at paving the way for transformational reforms in school and higher education systems to make India a global knowledge superpower.
Teaching up to class 5 in mother tongue or regional language, lowering the stakes of board exams, a single regulator for higher education institutions except for law and medical colleges and common entrance tests for universities are part of the sweeping reforms in the policy. PTI RS VS VS
New Education Policy "More Important Than Rafale Aircraft": Shiv Sena
Sena welcomed the NEP for its focus on education up to Class 5 in the mother tongue. (Representational)
The New Education Policy 2020 unveiled by the Government of India is more important than the procurement of Rafale fighter planes but there are concerns on its proper implementation, Shiv Sena said in its mouthpiece Saamana on Thursday.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi did a good job. He changed the country's educational policy completely. This change occurred after 34 years. This is more important than the Rafale planes from France. We call the new education policy important as the country has now got the Ministry of Education. So now the country will get an Education Minister. If a person is knowledgeable in the education sector then let him become Education Minister. Many people who do not have finance-related information or who do not have health-related information, often those ministries were given to those who did not do good work there," an editorial in Saamana read.
The Shiv Sena welcomed the policy for its focus on education up to class fifth in the mother tongue but expressed reservation whether this will only be limited to government schools and not spread to private schools run by missionaries and others.
"One thing is good that education up to the fifth grade is kept in the mother tongue. The demand for education in the mother tongue was constantly being made by the Sangh Parivar. The only question is that this mother tongue should not be limited to education only in government schools. There are English medium schools, ''convent schools'' of missionaries, Central schools and how will we implement this mother tongue education rule in the context of international schools?" the editorial read.
"Today there is a wave of education in English all over the country. Language and culture are dying due to this. People have assumed that the mother tongue is not suitable for livelihood, business, industry and research. Marathi schools were closed in cities like Mumbai and Thane. Marathi teachers became unemployed. This picture is surprising," it added.
Saamna further said that the proposed change of education from 10+2 to 5+3+3+4 is a step towards a more practical, skill-based and quality-oriented setup. But it went on to say whether the desired results will be achieved is circumspect as the quality is hardly valued in the system.
"According to the new policy, the exams of the tenth-twelfth have now ended. By cancelling their boards, the Central government has prepared a new framework of 5+3+3+4. Future education will not only be a book-making or graduate-producing factory but also practical and professional. The fear of results has been removed. Results will also be evaluated by the student, classmates and teachers themselves, not only by giving marks and remarks of teachers," it said.
"The standard of education which was once ''tenth-twelfth'' will no longer be there. The importance of certificates in the tenth-twelfth system has been done away with. Modi government abolished percentage competition. Governance also does not run on the criteria of quality, what about education there? There is an eagerness to know in which university will prepare the curriculum of the new educational policy and from which branch (university) these experts are coming," it read.
The Shiv Sena mouthpiece expressed concern that there is no scope for moral education in the new education policy.
"The system of teaching morality lessons is not available in the new education policy. Graduates and skilled people can be established, but we must also develop a good man, a good citizen. It is not possible to be a good politician without a citizen respecting rules, constitution, law and majority. Looking at the current mess in politics, there is a need for this moral lesson," the editorial read.