A virtual event was organised by the Indian Ministry of Education to mark one year of completion of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020.  At this, Prime Minister Modi announced 11 schemes to support the range of efforts envisaged for early childhood education, school and higher education set out in the policy document.

NEP 2020 replaces the last National Policy of Education (NPE), 1986 after a long period of 34 years. The NEP proposes sweeping changes in the Indian education system which includes opening up of Indian higher education to foreign universities, setting up of Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) to replace the University Grant Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), introduction of a four-year multidisciplinary undergraduate programme with multiple exit options, discontinuation of the MPhil programme, mother tongue as medium of instruction (grades one to five) and so on.

The Ministry had stated that the initial period of implementation would focus on non-financial reforms.  Most of the big changes are planned between 2020 to 2025.  The progress in implementation of these changes has been slow.  So far, in the higher education sector, one of the main commitments - the Academic Bank of Credit got launched in July 2021, late by six months. 

Some of the important announcement made in the anniversary are:

1. Academic Bank of Credit: all undergraduate students will have individual account in digital academic bank which will support their academic flexibility to change course or college and multiple entry and exit during under-graduation. It also grants credit for partially completed courses. A student who quits course after one year will get a certificate, a diploma after two years and a degree after three/four years.
2. Internationalisation of higher education: guidelines for India’s ambition to internationalise higher education and be a leading world’s knowledge hub was released.  More than 150 Indian institutions now have office for international affairs. It aims for research to be conducted on international stage. Credit transfer and twinning facilities will be provided to students and separate draft regulations for this were put out by the UGC for consultation this year.
3. National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR): an online repository of digital infrastructure for education, which will combine teaching-learning and planning and governance.
4. National Education Technology Forum (NETF): it will streamline education management right from “KG to PG” through deploying technology in teaching planning, evaluation and administration.
5.  AI for All: an online course aimed at offering a basic understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) for every citizen in the country including students, parents, professionals or even a senior citizen.
6. NISHTHA 2.0: the second phase of the teacher training programme targets secondary school teachers.
7. Sign language as a subject: Indian sign language has been made an official subject to empower children with disabilities.
8. Engineering Degrees in regional languages: Colleges across eight states will offer engineering courses in regional languages including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali from the new academic year (2020-21).
9. Structural Assessment for Analysing Learning Levels (SAFAL): Classes 3, 5 and 8 will have competency-based assessments and examinations.

British Council comments:

All the above listed schemes and initiatives are originally included in the NEP document, and their mention by the Prime Minister at the anniversary event reinforces the priority that the government attaches to them.  NEP 2020 was launched during the pandemic, and it is not a surprise that the progress of NEP implementation has been slow in the backdrop of two Covid waves, longest national lockdown and various other issues drawing more resources and attention of the government and officials.

Positive movement however has been visible in some areas such as the increase in the threshold of online education delivery to 40% by the Indian HEIs and complete online delivery of degree courses by the top 100 Indian HEIs in the national institute ranking framework for select subjects as an example.  Though this change currently applies to domestic HEIs, it is expected that it will pave way for online provision by international institutions going forward.

Another one is the draft regulations for joint degree, dual degree and twinning programme for academic collaboration between Indian and foreign HEIs which were released by the UGC earlier this year for public consultation.  Consolidated feedback from the UK sector was communicated by the British Council to the UGC in writing.  The final approved regulations are expected to be published shortly. When done, this will open up avenues for different forms of TNE partnership.  The newly instituted academic bank of credit and the ongoing mutual recognition of qualifications discussions between the UK and India are expected to contribute further to student mobility and TNE collaborations between the two countries. 

It should be noted that putting policy reforms in practice, on the ground, usually takes time and has been the case in India given its size, scale and the centre-state balance.  The government seems to want to move beyond materialising the low hanging fruits and address the tough challenges of supply-demand mismatch in order to fulfil the education and skills building needs of the huge young population of India.

Read more:

https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/one-year-of-nep-2020-14-engineering-colleges-to-teach-in-indian-languages-1834641-2021-07-30

https://www.edexlive.com/news/2021/jul/30/one-year-of-nep-here-are-11-blockbuster-schemes-that-pm-modi-announced-to-transform-education-in-22912.html

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/pm-modis-address-on-completion-of-1-year-of-new-education-policy-highlights-2497863

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/intel-launches-ai-for-all-initiative-in-partnership-with-cbse/article35623492.ece