NEP2020: A Much Needed Shake-up

In Bharat, Education and its facet have been a much-debated issue, with the stratagem being heavily outmoded. As the blueprint of the Education Policy of 1986 is finding it hard to keep up with the current framework of pedagogical needs, the National Educational Policy-2020 (NEP-2020) seems to be a step in the right direction.

On July 29, 2020, the Union Cabinet approved the up-to-date education policy that was in dire need of a shake-up. NEP-2020 aims to marshal a Bhartiya-centric educational system that contributes directly to transforming the nation into an equitable and vibrant knowledge-based society by providing quality education. Stern alterations have swept the educational precinct but a key takeaway from the new policy is the ‘internationalization’ of Bhartiya varsities.

Bharat had already given an open invitation to American and British collegiate institutes to set up campuses on Bhartiya soil, but the University Grants Commission is now taking it a step further by giving Bhartiya universities with the Institute of Eminence (IoE) badge a green light to proceed with launching global acreages.

Private universities are already up and running in some middle eastern countries, for instance, Amity University and Manipal University are hitherto in existence for over a decade now. But some IoE certified government-funded universities like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU) have a far-reaching international presence, being regulars in global university rankings. In other words, IIT, JNU and DU are equivalent of Harvard, MIT of Brown, attracting a huge chunk of foreign students as well, which makes up at least 25% of its disciples.

The sole inventiveness of the endeavor is to put Bharat on the global education map. In 2020, as part of its plan to improve facilities to fit the bill as an IoE and be in synch with the NEP-2020, DU had started nine new departments, including those on Climate Change and Public Health, and lined up the construction of hostels with shopping facilities.

However, with the new policy, a caveat of sorts is said to be trailing. IoE certified universities will remodel their three-year undergraduate courses to a four-tier one to align with the new policy. It has been of much parley that Bhartiya students are not job-ready even after their graduation whereas students of western nations can steadily bag a gig. This drawback had been attributed to the three-tier graduation system which had been modeled from the early British version. The latter model had been revised in the 1960s but the Bhartiya prototype was left untouched.

Till now, only Delhi University has come out publicly with the desire to adapt to all the necessary changes prescribed by the NEP-2020. Aspirants who want the tag of an IoE certified university on their resume have been excited and perturbed at the same time, with their cut-offs setting high records every year, it is an extraordinarily stiff task to get into IIT, JNU or DU. With the subtle switch to new policies and modus operandi, the results can be both sweet and sour, but it’s not for us to tell because the success of the story will not depend on the tongue of the teller but on the ear of the listener.