From the day one the National Education Policy (NEP) has been announced, some quarters, as expected, have started commenting critically and tried to turn the NEP into a Left versus Right debate. Though obvious and anticipated from Leftist self proclaimed ‘intellectuals,' this is misleading. The concept that one should be taught in one's mother tongue is not a thought exclusive to the domain of Right. There are many instance across the length and breadth of the country, quoting just one – take the example of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, just behind Khan Market, where the Khan Market gang sends its children. They've long had policy of teaching all subjects in Hindi till standard V.
The new National Education Policy aims to overhaul India's education system, right from pre-school to the university level. The most fundamental change is doing away with the present 10+2+3 structure to a 5+3+3+4 one.
This translates into a four year undergraduate degree, with the option to transfer credits to a different institution and an emphasis on the interdisciplinary approach.
The breaking down of ‘streams' (Arts, Science, Commerce) is potentially the most significant proposal in the NEP.
There is a proposal to make evaluation simpler. The policy proposes: “Any student who has been going to and making a basic effort in a school class will be able to pass and do well in the corresponding subject Board Exam without much additional effort.”
So passing an exam will not be such an uphill task. And yet, it was the present government which had scrapped Kapil Sibal's policy of no exams till standard VIII. In higher education, the MPhil degree will be scrapped. One goes straight from a Masters to a PhD programme.
There have been murmurs of protest about this. Several students would like to pursue their chosen discipline, say English or Sociology, up until the MPhil level.
They might not have the means, time or inclination to pursue a full-fledged PhD. The MPhil is valuable because it allows the student to specialise with an emphasis on research and field work. To overcome this issue, the NEP has moderated the direct entry to PhD level thus envisions getting more students into the fold of higher education.
In India, it was never a big deal to get a university degree. Many students of holding a Bachelor degree could hardly speak reasonably in either English and sometimes even in Hindi. Even now, students vie for seats in engineering and medical colleges instead of humanities.
The proposal to attract foreign universities to Indian shores has failed in the past. Finally, the word ‘holistic' appears a few hundred times in the NEP draft. The bureaucrats who wrote it will definitely benefit from a writing workshop.
