While speaking from the Red Fort in New Delhi on the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day, Narendra Modi, the Prime Minster of India mentioned that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a way to combat poverty and to keep pace with the requirements of the 21st century as it brings forward important reforms. He reiterated the benefits of the education policy.
He highlighted that the fresh initiatives of the new policy encourage imparting knowledge to pupils in regional languages of the country. He also talked about the significant feature of NEP which is sports that is now part of mainstream education and not just an extracurricular activity. Prime Minister mentioned sports as one of the means to move forward in life.
NEP – breath of fresh air in the spectrum of education in India
The Union Cabinet passed the National Education Policy 2020 in the month of July last year. It is the very first educational policy to be passed by the government in the last 34 years with the aim to completely revamp the education system of India.
As per the new system, there would be 12 years of schooling with three years of Pre-schooling/Angadwadi. NEP aims to raise the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education. This includes vocational education. The plan is to raise its enrolment percentage from 26.3 per cent (2018) to 50 per cent by the year 2035. The government aims to add 3.5 crore new seats in institutions of higher education. As far as school education is concerned, the 10+2 structure of school curricula is on way to be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years of children