The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is facing stiff resistance from the Meghalaya College Teachers Association (MCTA). Their contention is that the Policy calls for drastic reforms and re-engineering of the curriculum for which adequate resources are needed and which seem out of their reach for now. This has left students and their parents in a state of uncertainty. States like Tamil Nadu feel that the spirit of federalism will be eroded if the Centre takes on itself the task of directing the states to follow a centrally determined Policy, since Education is a state subject.
The NDA Government which is the architect of this Policy believes it is visionary and tuned to the needs of students in the 21st century. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan feels that this is the time for India to harness the capabilities of each student so that no one is left behind and the inglorious term “drop-out” is done away with because a student who cannot reach the final destination will still have acquired some skills and certification. The NEP envisages to make education more than just bookish learning. To that extent it is on the right track. The NEP also aims at making education holistic, affordable, accessible and equitable. To achieve these noble objectives would require close monitoring and retraining of teachers and would therefore require a robust monitoring system which has been lacking in Meghalaya. State funding has also not been adequate.
In Meghalaya state-funded schools and colleges have been most lax in their outcomes. Some such schools in rural areas have not been able to produce a single student who passed the Senior School Leaving Certificate Exam held by the State Board. The NEP has brought in much-needed change in the curriculum to include artificial intelligence (AI) and financial literacy. Primacy has also been given to the mother tongue or regional language although this is still in the experimental stage. The Education Ministry has also launched the much-talked-about Academic Bank of Credit—a programme that will provide multiple entry and exit options for students in higher education.
The NEP’s stated objectives is to improve children’s learning competencies in reading, writing and numerical skills by the end of the third grade and this is imperative after repeated studies have shown that students of Class 5 cannot read or comprehend what is taught in Class 3. Of course, teachers of both schools and colleges will need capacity building and re-orientation but that change is part of life. Education cannot be status quoist simply because teachers fear change and resist it. This would require that the country raise its spending on education. It’s important to accept the reality that education is in a crisis and is unable to meet the demands of contemporary times when technology is moving at a frenetic pace. If India is to capitalise on its demographic dividend it has to implement the NEP.