‘Shockingly-pleased’ may be an oxymoron, but it’s the only way to sum up my reaction to the National Education policy (NEP-2020). There may be a difference of opinion on certain points but by and large, it has pretty much covered everything required to revamp, upgrade, and reimagine the education of these times. Since it’s a profoundly meticulous document, I would concentrate only on higher education for today.
Having researched, read, and written extensively on higher education, loopholes were staring in my face and its remedies pulsating in my mind. Surprisingly, this policy document, if not all, encompasses most of it. Let’s also be aware that this is not a legal document that would be imposed instantly. This may, very well, take years to even begin to manifest itself. However, this shows the mindset of the concerned authorities in the government that ensures the progress to be made in the right direction. To discover bottlenecks and publicly proclaim a policy to address them is a job half-done. This policy document sets 2040 as its target. Given the technical and psychological disparity on the ground, with such a reformatory vision, may be too ambitious but even if it takes a few more years, one could draw solace from the fact that it’s all happening on the right trajectory.
Some of the most important features of the NEP-2020, as far as higher education is concerned, are:
1) Multidisciplinarity: There is a repeated emphasis on this term. I hope that the authors of the document aren’t confusing multidisciplinarity with interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. Multidisciplinarity studies a topic from the point of view of several disciplines at one time but makes no attempt to integrate their insights. Interdisciplinarity studies a huge complex problem by drawing on disciplinary insights and integrating them. Transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once between the disciplines, across different disciplines, and beyond all disciplines.
This will result in
a) Academic liberation of students: An Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) has been proposed to digitally store the credits earned by the students so that one could move around the disciplines and institutes without wasting a year. The undergraduate degree will be of either 3-or 4-year duration, with multiple exit options within this period, with appropriate certifications. The 4-year program may also lead to a degree ‘with research’. A student can obtain a diploma after completing 1 year, or an advanced diploma in a discipline or field (including vocational and professional areas) after completing 2 years of study or obtain a Bachelor’s degree after a 3-year program. This reminds me of my time in a university overseas when I had a choice to choose any school on the campus for any course for the extra credits apart from the core modules. I was excited to attend the law school of my university to earn 30 credits. I could never imagine it would happen back home in my life time.
b) Liberation of ‘Affiliated Colleges”: Within next 15 years, all the colleges will be autonomous degree-granting colleges or a part of a larger cluster, with a bigger say in devising their curriculum, hiring their faculty, and awarding their degrees- within the framework of the overarching Higher Education Commission (HEC).
c) Liberation of Faculty: When the colleges and its curriculum become autonomous, it’s the faculty that will determine the syllabus, and it’s them who would grade the students. This gives them more power, which comes with a greater responsibility, without the affiliating university breathing down their neck snatching their own sense of judgment.
d). All the universities will have multiple departments in order to inculcate a multidisciplinary approach amongst the students, researchers, and faculty- integrating liberal arts, and humanities with STEM subjects. There won’t be any single domain university like Agricultural or veterinary universities.
2) Internationalisation:
This is a watershed development where India has decided to open up for the leading universities abroad to set up its campus in the country. And also allow high-performing Indian institutes to have campuses overseas. This does not stop here. Student and faculty exchange has been emphasized to the extent that all the higher educational institutes are required to have an international office to welcome visiting students/faculty and send local ones abroad. The students could even earn credits in foreign institutions and come back after a semester or two and carry on with their degrees. Importance of exposure in the lives of students and faculty cannot be emphasized enough. This changes the person for good. For colleges and universities, globalization should be the top priority in today’s globalized world, since required legal changes are proposed to be done to accommodate such provisions.
- Vocational Education: The world knows how significant vocational education could prove to be, if it transpires in an organized, cohesive, and cogent way with an initiative taken at the highest level. This document proposes it to be integrated into the mainstream school and higher education system, in partnership with industry and other relevant players, so that 50% students by 2025 are exposed to it. What it misses to specifically talk about is the Soft Skill education.
4) Establishment of the National Research Foundation (NRF): This body has been formed to promote high quality research and enhance the research-culture in the universities. Governed by the rotating Board of Governors- independent of the government, this body will fund competitive, peer-reviewed grant proposals of all types and across all disciplines; seed, grow, and facilitate research at academic institutions to act as a liaison between researchers and relevant branches of government as well as industry; so as to allow breakthroughs to be optimally brought into policy and/or implementation; and recognize outstanding research and progress.
There is much more than this about transforming the regulatory system of higher education, curbing commercialization, governance and leadership in higher educational institutes, student entrepreneurship, Sports universities and technological integration, apart from increasing the GDP spending on education from around 4% to 6%. What remains to be seen is the implementation of these reforms which is going to be challenging. The bureaucratic fraternity has to shun Kafkaesque bureaucracy and reinvent their modus-operandi in order to realize this vision.
Although vocational education figured in NEP-2020 but an absolutely indispensable and crucial element of it deserved to head the list. The document has not done justice with it. It is the Soft Skills. Research conducted by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Center has all concluded that 85% of job success comes from having well‐developed soft and people skills, and only 15% of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge (hard skills). The vocational skills that this document talks about are mostly the technical hard skills and soft skills do seem to be involved but without naming it. If there are skills that impact 85% job success, and even entrepreneurial success, there had to be a special emphasis on it. Anyway, the private players can take this up before everything else loses its meaning. Yes, this is so pivotal. If a person has everything and no soft skills, the chances of success are only 15%.