The Shillong Times caught up with Principal Secretary, Education, DP Wahlang, to get
a sense of how the recently-announced New Education Policy 2020 will impact education system in Meghalaya and what would it take to implement in the state.
In a candid conversation, Wahlang lays bare the facts for readers to ingest.
Here are some excerpts:
TST: How will the New Education Policy affect the state prima facie?
DPW: The New Education Policy (NEP 2020) is an overwhelming document encompassing issues across all components in the Education ecosystem. The document envisages building a global standard education system rooted in Indian ethos to transform the country into a knowledge superpower. The policy envisages large scale paradigm shifts which will impact the Education system in the state and would require a huge systemic overhaul. However, the operational guidelines of the policy is what is required to be framed to move ahead towards its implementation.
TST: Which are the specific areas where the major changes are foreseen?
DPW: The major changes would be the transformation in the 5+3+3+4 system in school education and to bring ECCE into the proper schooling system. Training the Anganwadi workers and integrating them into the schooling ecosystem would be a huge challenge. Therefore, restructuring the school curriculum and pedagogy would also entail many challenges and with the proposal for clusterisation of schools the exercise is going to be humongous.
TST: Regarding medium of instruction in mother tongue, which is fine, do we have text books in local languages?
DPW: The proposal to start teaching in mother tongue will always be a challenge in a pluralistic set up like our state. The state will have to gear up to the new challenges of preparing textbooks in the local languages as currently they are inadequate.
TST: What are the major areas of difficulty?
DPW: The major challenges would be restructuring the school system and curriculum; financial problems in meeting new flexible course options, clustering the school complexes, adoption of classical languages, adoption of mother tongue in a multi-cultural milieu like ours, where English is still an aspirational language.
TST: What about minority institutions, the autonomy of which seems to have been taken away?
DPW: In fact, with the proposed policy, the prevailing asymmetry in regulation of public and private schools will be done away with and the inspectorial system will give way to open disclosure under the new State Schools Standard Authority (SSSA), thereby, helping private schools, especially those set up with public good. Adequate protection exists in current legislation on ensuring independence of minority institutions which have been untouched.
TST: What would be the major resources needed here? Human and financial.
DPW: Both financial and human resources investment will be needed in humongous proportions. The policy is a game-changing pronouncement and until the plans and operational guidelines are in place, we need to further deep dive and study in greater detail the finer nuances of the document. After all, the devil lies in the details.
TST: Can the present set of teachers cope with the NEP?
DPW: Teachers’ training is a flexible exercise and the content depends on the authority creating it. The teachers will have to be flexible to inculcate new ideas and the training curriculum will have to undergo a major shift to ensure teachers adjust to the newly-scoped policies in the sector.
TST: How long will it take to get battle-ready with all that’s needed to be put in place before the launch?
DPW: The ball has started rolling but as I mentioned, a policy is a general guideline, we will have to wait for the operational plans to be put in place. A lot of discussion still has to take place to put plans in place. Budgets have to be drawn and that will take time. Some states may not agree with certain points and that will be subject to discussions again, which usually is done at the CABE (central advisory board of education) meeting, where all ministers are members. So things will roll albeit at an uneven pace; some will gain traction while some will come to a grinding halt, altogether.
TST: Is the government looking at introducing new system from the next academic year?
DPW: I don’t think we can see an overhaul in a year’s time… it’s a time consuming process. Some states will pick up fast, some will be slower. We will pick what suits the interest of the state, the teachers and the learners first.