New education policy fine goals

New education policy fine goals

The National Education Policy 2020’s goals are welcome: to inculcate critical thinking outside narrow disciplinary boundaries, to permit the seamless transfer of knowledge to skill, of fresh chances to gain knowledge and renew skill. Holistic, multidisciplinary education at a higher level is sought to be grounded in thoroughly revamped schooling. However, the policy would appear to seek to achieve far greater centralisation than a diverse country like India can afford and to militate against for-profit education, with its defining vision of education as a public service that excludes viable private investment.

A welcome reform is early childhood education. Schooling is to be reorganised into a 5+3+3+4 format, the first stage starting at age 3. The focus on foundational literacy and numeracy is welcome. The other focus is on higher-order cognitive skills and soft skills. Critical to this effort is reducing the curriculum burden on the student —board examinations will continue but will lose their primacy. However, this only shifts focus to tests conducted by the proposed National Testing Agency, whose scores would determine admission to cherished institutions of higher education.

The bias against for-profit education manifests itself as fee regulation, the mandate to provide financial assistance to socially and economically deprived students, which is beyond the capability of private institutions, and the mandate for full financial disclosure. With fiscal capacity that fetches taxes worth just 16.5% of GDP for the Centre and the states combined and rising defence demands on the fisc, is it realistic for the State to expect 50% of high school graduates to enrol in universities, if those universities exclude privately funded, for-profit bodies?

The four pillars of regulation seem built for overkill. Further, the notion that college governing bodies will renew themselves autonomously is a guarantee for disaster. If a bunch of flat-earthers constitute the initial body, flat-earthers will hold sway in perpetuity. Harvard graduates elect members to Harvard’s governing body.