NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the new National Education Policy (NEP) with an aim to introduce several changes in the Indian education system – from the school to college level.
A single regulator for higher education institutions, multiple entry and exit options in degree courses, discontinuation of MPhil programmes, low stakes board exams, common entrance exams for universities are among the highlights of the policy.
Speaking to reporters, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said the changes are important as the policy, which was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992, had not been revised since then.
The Cabinet also approved changing the name of the HRD ministry to education ministry.
Here are the key changes under the New Education Policy:
* MPhil courses will be discontinued under the new policy and all the courses at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD level will now be interdisciplinary
* All higher education institutions, except legal and medical colleges, will be governed by a single regulator
* Board exams in schools will be low stakes and test actual knowledge of students instead of “rote learning”
* Home language, mother tongue or regional language will be the medium of instruction up to Class 5
* School curriculum will also be reduced to core concepts and there will be integration of vocational education from Class 6

* Report cards will be a comprehensive report on skills and capabilities instead of just marks and statements
* Common norms will be in place for private and public higher education institutions
* It will also cap fees charged by educational institutions
* Common entrance exams will be held for admission to universities and higher education institutions
* The ministry announced that there will be holistic and multidisciplinary education in terms of flexiblity of subjects
* Other features include graded academic, administrative and financial autonomy of institutions
* E-courses will be developed in regional languages; virtual labs will be developed and a National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) is being created
* There are over 45,000 affiliated colleges in our country. Under graded autonomy, academic, administrative and financial autonomy will be given to colleges, on the basis of the status of their accreditation
* National mission will focus on basic literacy and basic numeracy
* Major changes have been announced in the pedagogical structure of curriculum with no rigid separation between streams; all separations between vocational and academic and curricular and extra-curricular will also be removed
* National Assessment Centre- ‘PARAKH’ has been created to assess the students
“NEP 2020 aims to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3% (2018) to 50% by 2035. At least 3.5 crore new seats will be added to higher education institutions,” HRD higher education secretary Amit Khare said at the press briefing.
Watch Cabinet approves new national education policy