‘New edu policy is what new India needs’

The Indian economy has been intensively transforming, and in the process, measures towards high-quality education are inevitable. We have the highest youth population in the world, with 600 million young people below the age of 25 years and 28 per cent of the population with less than 14 years of age.

The population growth rate is expected to remain around one per cent, and this would place India population-wise the largest nation on earth by 2022, overtaking China. This demographic dividend could be shaped into a powerful engine of economic growth if India manages to rejuvenate and widen the education system, raise educational standards, and impart skills to the youth. School education assumes vital importance as it sets the footing for developing individual traits based on four pillars - learning to know; learning to do; learning to live together and learning to develop own personality.

The draft New Education Policy (NEP) 2019 released recently by the new Union minister for HRD Ramesh Pokhriyal has attracted mass attention throughout India and outside, as against background mentioned above. The draft policy envisages reforms at all levels from school to higher levels. The draft would be shared with the States, Central Advisory Board of Education, and public for feedback. After that, the MHRD shall analyse the suggestions and finally place it for the approval of the Union Cabinet. Once the NEP is approved, it shall supplant the education system based on First Educational Policy of 1968 formulated in line with recommendations of the Kothari Commission and subsequent modifications made under National Policy on Education 1986; National Policy on Education 1992; and Education Policy under Common Minimum Programme 2005.

Right to Education Act, 2009, provides for free and compulsory education to all children from the age of six to 14 years. The draft policy recommends extending the ambit of the RTE Act to include early childhood education and secondary school education. This would extend the coverage of the Act to all children between the ages of three to 18 years.

The current structure of school education would be restructured based on the development needs of students. This would consist of a 5-3-3-4 design: (a) five years of foundational stage - three years of pre-primary school and classes one and two, (b) three years of preparatory stage - classes three to five, (c) three years of middle stage - classes six to eight, and (d) four years of secondary stage - classes nine to 12.

Concerning childhood learning programmes, the committee observed grave deficiencies related to quality. The current curriculum doesn’t meet the developmental needs of children, and a dearth of qualified and trained teachers adds fuel to the fire. Designing a two-part curriculum for early childhood care and education is proposed by way of guidelines for parents and teachers of children below three years old, and educational framework for three to eight-year-old children. This would be implemented by improving Anganwadi system and co-locating Anganwadis with primary schools.

The Committee detected that the current education system focuses on learning rote facts and procedures. The committee recommends that the curriculum load in each subject should be reduced to its essential core content, facilitating space for holistic, discussion-based, and analysis-based learning. Further, tracking students’ progress throughout their school experience is proposed coupled with State Census Examinations in classes three, five and eight.

Restructuring the board examinations to test only core concepts, skills and higher order capacities is also recommended. Students can choose from a range of subjects and the semester when they want to take these board exam. They would replace the in-school final exams.

Forming school complexes is another suggestion. Each school complex will be a semi-autonomous unit providing integrated education across all stages from early childhood to secondary education. The draft policy recommends that teachers should be deployed with a particular school complex for at least five to seven years.  Further, teachers will not be allowed to participate in any non-teaching activities such as cooking mid-day meals or participating in vaccination campaigns, during school hours.

The Committee observes that technology plays an important role in improving the classroom process of teaching, learning and evaluation; aiding in the preparation of teachers and continuous professional development of teachers; improving access to education in remote areas and for disadvantaged groups; and  improving the overall planning, administration and management of the entire education system.

The draft has rightly suggested solutions for early childhood and primary education. The focus on the basic understanding of language and mathematics will help in improving quality. There are pieces of empirical evidence in neuroscience that over 85 per cent of the child’s cumulative brain development occurs before the age of six and that the ‘scientific school preparedness’ at Anganwadis would facilitate play and discovery-based learning for children of that age group.

There are progressive ideas, but there are hurdles in their implementation. The draft suffers from major deficiencies such as the absence of operational details and lack of insights into how the policy will be funded. Similarly, language, too, has taken centre stage in the process of learning. The policy recommends that the mother tongue will remain the mode of instruction till class five, and they can preferably choose it till class eight. No language should be imposed, and those who are interested can learn any language of their choice.

Doubling of public funding to six per cent of the GDP is recommended, and this is desirable but does not appear to be feasible soon, if additional funding has to come from the States. Public expenditure on education in India was 2.7 per cent of GDP in 2017-18. This was about 10 per cent of the total government - both Centre and States -  spending. Public spending on education has never attained the six per cent of  GDP envisaged in the 1968 Policy, reiterated in the 1986 Policy, and further reaffirmed in the 1992 Programme of Action.

Countries across the world make a substantially higher public investment in education than India does. Though innovative financing schemes have been proposed in the draft how those schemes will bring about results remain to be seen. Let us hope that the new apex body, the Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (National Education Commission) headed by the Prime Minister would be able to resolve the banes related to huge financial commitment and operational issues.

(The author is former dean and UGC Emeritus Fellow, University of Kerala and currently Senior Fellow – ICSSR, Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, Thiruvananthapuram)