The NEP 2020 has been under discussion as regards its intent for past two years after its adoption.
Different clauses of the policy are in the process of implementation/delivery right from present academic session starting in the month of August, 2022.
Once implemented with all sincerity of purpose shown by the stake holders the entire education system will be revolutionised. Teacher plays a lead role; whereas, student enjoys pivotal position in the education system.
The other players (parents-employers-governance-alumni-civil society) offer their valuable support to run the system effectively.
Right from adoption of NEP 2020 (29th July, 2020) efforts have been made for its implementation. In this regard teachers have been engaged in to workout different strategies for its successful delivery. However, the impact of this policy is expected to be visible on the campus in due course of time.
The college faculty may double their efforts to disseminate knowledge about any dimension/clause of NEP 2020 of their interest. It is pertinent to mention that HED sometime back started a lecture series on accreditation process by inviting select group of college principals across J&K.
They deliberated upon different key aspects to activate the accreditation process in the institutions. The impact of this exercise is visible as more colleges are now obtaining higher ranking.
Based on same analogy a select group of college principals/faculty may prepare lectures or attempt write-ups highlighting implementation of this policy. This way a number of internal resource persons will be available in the colleges to motivate their colleagues in the flow of new ideas.
NEP 2020 focus on curriculum management rather than syllabi dissemination.
Until now the institutions have been engaged in development-transaction-evaluation with more emphasis on syllabi whereas curriculum has now to be taken care of including on the campus and off the campus activities and participation of students in an integrated approach.
When all inclusive curriculum management is talked about, it is single greatest tool for social and individual development leading towards achieving justice and equity of society. Rightly, equity is one of the five pillars of NEP 2020.
It is, thus, essential that every institution should start the process for preparation of Instructional Manual to be made available to students on the day of beginning of first semester under NEP 2020. This manual shall include complete curriculum; both curricular as well as co-curricular activities with equal weightage.
This enables teachers to redesign instructional strategies and evaluation mechanism based on 360 degree assessment (discussed in our earlier column in detail).
The NEP 2020 shuns love for routine. Accordingly, flipped (inverse) class room demands that teaching plan-study material-relevant references are shared with learners in advance.
This motivates them to study course content from different knowledge sources to promote inquisitiveness enabling them to raise new/unknown questions. The teacher under new setting facilitates and performs his role as a mentor to find answers to such questions.
The policy empowers students to be demanding and makes them competent to dissent, disagree, debate and discuss an academic concept leading to growth of knowledge.
“It is knowledge that liberates”. Thus, the campus within classroom and outside should be abuzz during the day when students are engaged in discussions and interactions among themselves and with teachers. It will motivate students for their self-study and come prepared to seek clarifications of a particular concept from their teachers.
It will also encourage students collaborative learning (interaction between fast learners and slow learners) to learn from each other. It will also help in team teaching as a group of teachers will deal with a particular phenomenon as regards its different dimensions.
Therefore, conventional teaching methodologies and study notes prepared once upon a time /power point presentations developed during yester years are to be replaced by the new pedagogical tools enabling students to move from “mind filling to mind forming”.
The changing times, in the aforesaid discussion, focus on appropriate pedagogical planning to be done by the institution and teachers in advance.
The analysis of programme/course content with due regard to learning objectives and learning outcomes based on graduate attributes is to be compiled under pedagogical planning.
In this regard a well-designed pedagogical hand book is to be compiled by every institution. This will provide input for instructional manual.
The first priority of a teacher is to develop quality citizenry for productive contribution to the wellbeing of society. This is possible when healthy habits are inculcated in the learners.
Once quality citizens are developed they will work in any walk of life very effectively. It is rightly said that the future of the country is shaped in the class room. A teacher has a lead role. He is an academic leader both at macro as well as micro level functioning in the institution.
Teachers by profession should be creative and innovative. They should always put in efforts to think out of box in order to enrich teaching-learning-evaluation process; besides, research and extension activities. It is because of this attribute that they are known as innovation ambassadors.
They should share their ideas and innovations with their colleagues and students. The staff rooms should be abuzz with generation and sharing of ideas as experienced in the past.
It helps an institution to realise its vision and mission. The motto of an institution should be to pursue the shared vision with top-down approach. The stake holders preferably the internal ones should be in know of this shared vision.The shared vision is developed by engaging all stake holders.
The status of colleges is being elevated by introducing four year degree programme with focus on research. The present article expects up-gradation and expansion of capacities (physical-digital-intellectual) in the colleges.
The teacher-taught ratio is also to be revisited to do justice and obtain desired results of research in line with intent of the policy. The dissemination of knowledge and engagement in research activities demand separate standards for teacher-taught ratio to commensurate with these activities.
The NEP 2020 envisages switchover from affiliated to autonomous colleges. At present there are three autonomous colleges in J&K. This article foresees that there will be at least two autonomous colleges in each district and two more cluster universities one each in Chinab Valley (Baghi Fareed) and Kupwara in J&K by 2030.
It is therefore, essential that the colleges at present enjoying autonomy should start constituting open-ended consortium. They cannot afford to work in salos. They should have MOUs covering different events/activities of their mutual interest and benefit from the experiences of one another.
To conclude any system does not improve upon by chance but by change. Same is true with education system. In an institution every teacher is a leader as he performs different roles.
This distributive leadership is encouraged in a dynamic education ecosystem. Of course, head of the institution is academic leader of the organisation.
Ownership of learning is not possible in rot/memorisation of content. It needs critical and creative thinking to apply, analyse and synthesise the content.
Teacher is to be prepared with academic power at his command and to abandon conventional way of teaching. Teacher has a role to sensitise students with changes effected in the education ecosystem.
In the context of NEP 2020 implementation student has to be made aware of the changes envisaged in the policy.
UGC-HRD centres have added role to effect the change in the mind set of teachers for effective implementation of NEP 2020.
The crux is that teachers have to be enthusiastic, motivated and proactive with patience to implement NEP 2020 in letter and spirit and enjoy this academic festivity. Teachers’ role is key for the success of the policy.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.