Top 49 Recommendations of National Education Policy 2019

You can now provide comments and suggestions on NEP 2019 till July 31 as the Union Government has extended the last date. Devdiscourse presents a recap of NEP in 49 points for an easy digest of our readers on how India is planning to educate her future generations.

Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Thursday announced July 31 as the new last date for providing comments and suggestions on the Draft National Education Policy 2019, that aims to revamp the education system in India by 2030. The draft NEP prepared by a committee of educationists chaired by India’s leading Space Scientist and former head of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Dr K. Kasturirangan has been put in the public domain for providing comments and suggestions. We are also running LIVE DISCOURSE on NEP where you can participate with your comments and suggestions.

In addition to recommending an incremental increase in public investment till it reaches 20% of the total public expenditure, possibly in next 10 years by 2030, from its current 10% (p.406), the policy has also advocated to attract maximum private investment in education. The provisions of ‘private exam boards’, private Accreditation Institutes, full autonomy to private educational institutions and universities, allowing foreign universities on Indian soil and Indian universities to have overseas campuses could provide new avenues for private investment in the Indian education system.  

The HRD Minister also informed that the ministry had received around 50,000 suggestions on NEP till June 27. Here we present a recap of NEP in 49 points (21 on School Education and 28 on Higher Education) for a quick review of our readers on how India plans to educate her future generations.  

School Education

1. The minimum age for admission of a child in the formal education system has been reduced from the existing six years to three years. In this way, the NEP has proposed to integrate existing ‘play schools’ with the formal education system. Thus a new education structure of 5+3+3+4 has been presented for the students of 3 to 18 years of age (page 75).
2. A new category of ‘Foundation Stage’ has been created which includes the existing Play Schools and Grades (Class) 1 and 2 of the existing 5 years Primary or Elementary education system (page 75). The play schools in India come under the Ministry of Women and Child Development but practically they function without any regulation. The RTE Act will be amended to bring the play schools under the Ministry of Human Resource Development or Ministry of Education.  
3. The second stage of education has been named as Preparatory or Later Primary. It will be of three years only – Grades 3,4 and 5 (page 75). There is no change in Middle or Upper Primary Stage but the four grades – 9, 10, 11 and 12 have been clubbed as Secondary or Higher Secondary.
4. The schools will have complete freedom in terms of curriculum, pedagogy, textbooks and examination boards. Private schools will have complete freedom to decide their fee provided they are not engaged in profiteering and follow high morals of philanthropy.
5. There will be Census Examination at Grade 3, 5 and 8 in addition to the board examinations at Grade 10 and 12. However, the focus of these examinations will be formative assessment and learning of the core concepts. NCERT will prepare guidelines for these examinations by 2022 (pp. 106-07). A Grade 3 student should know to write in the medium of instruction and a Grade 8 student should learn science subjects in English (p.84).
6. The 10th and 12th standard hi stake board examinations will be scrapped. The Secondary Stage – Grades 9, 10, 11, 12 – will have two semesters in each year. Thus there will be 8-semester examinations. Each student will take 5 to 6 subjects in each semester. A student will be required to appear in at least 24 board subject examinations. Thus students will be taking 40 plus semester courses during secondary school (p.108).
7. The system of extra-curricular and co-curricular subjects/activities will be abolished (p. 78). The curricular or vocational courses have been made part of the main curriculum. At the secondary level, a student may take 15 vocational courses (p.108).  The institutes of polytechnic and ITI will be integrated with the secondary school system. However, the open school system will be strengthened to drop out students.
8. The students at the secondary level will have the freedom to appear in the examination as per their choice or whenever they think they are prepared for examination in that particular subject of their choice. “Students should be able to take a board examination in a given subject in whichever semester they take the corresponding class in school, i.e., whenever they feel the readiest; and they should be able to take any such subject board examination again if they feel they can study and do better” (p. 106). 
9. In addition to CBSE, ICSE, State boards there will be ‘private boards of national or state level’ and University boards for conducting examinations. They will be known as the Board of Assessment (BOA). A student will be free to choose any board of his choice for his/her examination in a particular subject. All the boards will have the power to issue certificates (P.184).
10. The schools will be free to appoint ‘special educators’ for local art, literature, craft and culture (p.136). Besides, the provision of volunteer teachers and selected students will also be used as tutors.
11. There shall be no contractual appointment of any kind (p.123) in education like Shiksha Mitra etc.
12. The NCERT will not provide textbooks. It will only design curricula for various subjects at different Grades. The State education bodies – SCERTs – will be responsible for writing/ supervising textbook writing either (178-79). Besides, English there will be an emphasis on providing textbooks in Hindi, regional languages, and tribal languages as well.
13. Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITE) will be established for the translation of textbooks from one language to the other (p102-03).
14. There will be an emphasis on Knowledge of India and Inspiring Lessons from India in the curriculum (pp. 97-8). The curriculum will also include basic Health and Safety training including sex education, STD prevention and family planning (p.97).
15. The government schools in a locality will be clubbed into ‘School Complex’ with a view to share human resources and infrastructure. These school complexes will report to District Education Council headed by District Magistrate. DEC will report to SCERT of the concerned state. The central government’s ‘School Complexes’ will report to NCERT or any other designated body. Each school will have its School Management Committee (SMC) comprising guardians, teachers and locals. The School Complex MC and DEC will also have a mixed structure (Chapter 8).
16. The teachers will be given incentives and accommodation for appointments in villages, tribal and remote areas.
17. The teacher-student ration will be 1:30. It will be 1:25 in schools dominated by SC/ST/OBC/Girls and minorities (p.142). These groups SC/ST/OBC/ Girls and Minorities have been clubbed as Under-Represented Groups (ORGs). The teachers of the ORG community will be preferred in the schools having a significant population of ORG students. 
18. The policy recommends to extend Mid-Day Meal programme up to 12th standard and also including the provision of breakfast (p.416-17).
19. The private schools shall not use the word ‘public’. The word ‘public’ will be used only by the government-funded schools (p.190).  
20. There will be a unified and integrated competitive exam for admission in higher education institutes conducted by – National Testing Agency (NTA). All the universities, medical colleges, engineering colleges, etc will shortlist students on the basis of their performance in NTA (p. 109).  The NTA will be conducted more than once in a year so that students may take multiple attempts to improve their ranks. NTA has been proposed to start operations from 2020 academic session.
21. Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) will be re-designated as ‘Ministry of Education’ (p.392).   

 

Higher Education

1. There will be three categories of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in India - Type 1 (Research Universities), Type 2 (Teaching Universities) and Type 3 Colleges (p.214). All the existing educational institutes including IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, IIITs etc will have to align with any of the three categories (p.214-15).
2. The Type 1 and Type 2 HEIs will have campus enrollment of 5,000 to 25,000 while Type 3 will have 5,000- 10,000 students in their campuses.
3. All HEIs will be multi-disciplinary. An HEI will be called multi-disciplinary if it offers at least two programmes or majors in the arts and humanities, at least two in science and mathematics, and at least one in the social sciences (p.212). There will be no affiliating university or affiliating college as the provision of ‘affiliation’ will be scrapped.
4. All the public and private HEIs will enjoy autonomy equal to existing universities. The objective will be to develop at least one residential HEI in each district of India. The standalone research institutes of like those affiliated with ICSSR and ICAR will either become HEIs or part of any identified HEI.
5. The HEIs will have full autonomy in terms of curriculum, pedagogy, recruitment of teachers, teacher education, teacher training, promotion, merit-based career management, mentoring academic leaders, the appointment of academic leaders etc (several provisions in Chapters 9-18).
6. National Research Foundation (NRF) with a budgetary allocation Rs 20,000 crore per annum to provide funding for research in both private and public universities (p.218).  
7. All HEIs will have to start Under-graduate courses (p.215).
8. The multidisciplinary ‘affiliated colleges’ will be provided with the status of ‘autonomous college’ with all the powers of a university including ‘degree giving powers’. By 2030, there will be no ‘affiliated college’. Those failed to developed either will be merged with universities or shut down. All the new educational institutes will be multi-disciplinary HEIs only. 
9. Mission Nalanda and Mission Takshshila for catalysing the new institutional structure (pp.220-21). 
10. Special Education Zones (SEZ) will be created with Type 1 HEI for 50 lakh population, Type 2 for 5 lakh and Type 3 for 2 lakh population (p.217).
11. Indian Institutes of Liberal Arts (IILA) will be established on the pattern of IITs and IIMs (p.232). IILA will provide a four-year Bachelor in Liberal Arts (BLA) or Bachelor of Liberal Education (BLE) or BLA with Research as in there will be rigorous curriculum on research in the final year. The interested HEIs may also start BLA/BLE.
12. There is great emphasis on teacher education as the policy recommends four years integrated B.Ed. for teachers.
13. The curriculum of an undergraduate level will have two parts – A common core curriculum/ subject distribution requirement for all students, and (b). One or two area/s of specialization. Students will be allowed to choose subject combinations across the current so-called ‘streams’ including professional and vocational streams e.g. a student will be able to choose a major in Physics with a minor in Hindi, p. 229.
14. The M.Phil. course shall be discontinued (p.238). The Post Graduate courses will be known as ‘graduate’ courses. The students will be enrolled in ‘Doctoral Courses’ after graduate courses.
15. The provision of contractual/ ad-hoc appointments will be stopped immediately. HEIs will decide their own rules for faculty recruitment/ and promotions with a provision that any faculty can’t be given less than the prescribed salary and will have to be on probation for a period of five years. Based on the ‘service record’ a faculty may be confirmed after five years of service. The faculty shall be non-transferable and will be only for the HEI it was recruited.
16. The faculty body must be a mix of academicians and field practitioners, p.259.
17. The faculties in higher education will be appointed on probation for a period of five years then confirmed on the basis of service track record. There will be no direct appointment as permanent faculty (p.260).
18. Retired professors / eminent scholars will be appointed ‘Mentors’ for HEIs to promote research. There will be no age limit for mentors. 
19. Lateral entry of paramedical students in MBBS course and centralized exit exam for MBBS, p.305.
20. District hospitals will become teaching hospitals for medical student, p.306.
21. Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog or National Education Council with Prime Minister as Chairperson and Minister for Education as Vice Chairperson for monitoring and regulation of education in the country. In the states, State Education Council will be headed by the Chief Minister (p.391-92).
22. National Higher Education Authority of India (NHEAI) for the regulation of HEIs (Chapter 18). The regulatory mechanisms of UGC and AICTE etc will be scrapped.
23. NAAC for Accreditation of HEIs (Chapter 18). There will be private and public Accreditation Institutes (AIs) empanelled with NHEAI.
24. Medical Council of India, AICTE, BCI etc will be redesigned as ‘Professional Standard Setting Bodies’ (PSSB) for that discipline. They will focus on setting professional standards only but no power on curriculum or regulation etc.
25. UGC will be replaced with Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) with power only give grant on the basis of grading by Accreditation Institutes (AIs). 
26. National Education Technology Forum for technology in education, p. 343.
27. Private and Public both kinds of HEIs will be allowed to decide their fees for professional courses, p.300-01 and p.334-35.
28. Foreign universities will be allowed to open campuses in India and Indian universities will also be allowed to open overseas campuses, p. 252. All the private and public HEIs will have complete freedom to decide the fee of their courses. There will be no interference of the government in HEIs.