Tag: Quality Education

Salient Features of NEP, 2020

Salient Features of NEP, 2020

The National Education Policy 2020 was unveiled on July 29, 2020. The National Education Policy 2020 makes a number of changes to both higher education and secondary education, including technical education. The National Education Policy 2020 lists a number of action items/activities that should be implemented in both higher education and schooling.

The following are specifics of NEP 2020’s key features:

• Ensuring universal access at all educational levels, from preschool to grade 12;

• Ensuring that all children between the ages of 0 and 3 receive high-quality early care and education;

• New Pedagogical and Curricular Framework (5+3+3+4);

• There are no clear distinctions between the humanities and sciences, academic and extracurricular pursuits, or career paths;

• Launching a national initiative on basic literacy and numeracy;

• Promoting multilingualism and Indian languages as a priority; The home language, mother tongue, local language, or regional language will be used as the primary medium of teaching until at least Grade 5, but ideally until Grade 8 and beyond.

• Assessment reforms, including up to two Board Exams per school year, one for the main exam and one for improvement, if requested;

• The establishment of the PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) National Assessment Center;

• Educational equity and inclusion, with a focus on Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs);

• Special Education Zones and a specific gender inclusion fund for underprivileged areas and groups;

• Effective and open procedures for hiring teachers and performance evaluations based on merit;

• Ensuring that all resources are accessible via school complexes and clusters;

•State School Standards Authority (SSSA) establishment 

• Promotion of vocational education throughout the K–12 and tertiary systems of instruction;

• raising GER to 50% in higher education;

• Multidisciplinary, all-encompassing education with numerous points of access and departure;

• NTA will conduct a Common Entrance Exam for HEI Admission;

• The founding of an academic bank of credit

•Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERUs) establishment ;

•The National Research Foundation (NRF) was established.

•”Light yet Tight” regulation 

• The Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), a single overarching umbrella organisation, with independent bodies for standard setting (the General Education Council), funding (the Higher Education Grants Council), accreditation (the National Accreditation Council [NAC]), and regulation (the National Higher Education Regulatory Council [NHERC]), is responsible for promoting the higher education sector, including teacher education but excluding medical and legal education;

• Growing open and distant education to boost the gross enrollment ratio (GER).

• Globalization in Education

• The higher education system will include professional education as a core component. The goal of institutions in these and other sectors, including independent technical universities, law schools, medical schools, and agricultural colleges, is to become multidisciplinary institutions.

• 4-year integrated stage- and subject-specific teacher education degree in education

• Creating a National Mentoring Mission.

•The establishment of the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), an independent organisation that would serve as a forum for the unrestricted discussion of ways to use technology to improve instruction, evaluation, planning, and administration.

•The appropriate use of technology in all educational levels.

•Objectives Reaching 100% adult and juvenile literacy.

• The commercialization of higher education will be fought and stopped by a number of methods with checks and balances.

• As a “not for profit” company, all educational institutions will be held to the same standards of audit and disclosure.

• The Center and the States will collaborate to boost public spending on education so that it reaches 6% of GDP as soon as possible.

• The Central Advisory Board of Education should be strengthened to maintain coordination and to put more of an emphasis on quality education overall.

By 2030, the NEP, 2020 aims to raise the GER in preschool through secondary education to 100%, while it will rise from 26.3% in 2018 to 50% in higher education, including vocational education.

Government Initiated Educational Policies

Government Initiated Educational Policies That Are Modifying The Education Sector

Major changes have been made to India’s educational system.
Over the years, the Indian government has implemented a number of initiatives to support skill development and education. Private institutions can adopt these policies’ concepts and use them to increase their revenues.
Here are a few of the key educational policies that have lately been established.
Digital Payment
Prakash Javadekar, the Union HRD minister, promoted the advantages of digital payment by implementing cashless payment across all centrally-aided institutions.
No Detention Policy
For all students in grades 5th to 8th, the HRD Ministry amended the previous rule to allow for promotion to the following class. The new policy makes passing every exam necessary in order to advance to the following class.
Male Students can also file for sexual harassment
The number of incidents of sexual harassment against male students has significantly increased. Male students may now report instances of sexual harassment thanks to new rules established by the UGC.
Gender Education Must Be Required
Telangana’s government mandated gender education as a requirement for graduation. Along with doing so, it was the first state in India to do so, and it also brought in multilingual textbooks.
Yoga classes 
Yoga sessions are now required in all ICSE and ISC institutions, according the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE).
Free higher education for students with disabilities
The government of Guwahati has established a programme that will provide these kids with free education from Class 9 to the university level in all government-run institutions of higher learning.

No homework for students of class 1st and 2nd
No homework may soon become reality. Prakash Javade, the minister of human resource development (HRD), suggested that students in grades 1 and 2 might no longer have homework.
New guidelines for girls’ education
A “modern education policy” is something the government wants to implement. The new education policy’s (NEP) main emphasis will be on females’ education. It intends to eliminate educational inequity.
Eklavya schools 
By 2022, Scheduled Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST) students will have access to Eklavya schools, which will be modelled after Navodaya schools. It will offer athletic instruction and skill development. Additionally, it will contain unique spaces for conserving regional art and culture.
Diksha scheme 
The Indian government will soon introduce the integrated B.Ed programme and develop the learning portal “DIKSHA” to improve teaching abilities.
Sports Education
The government of India is proposing to make sports education a component of the Fundamental Rights and to promote it countrywide.
Reducing the bag’s weight
For lower primary classes, the Department of Primary and Secondary Education intends to implement ideas like “no bag day” and a lighter bag requirement.

Government Initiated Educational  Policies 

Government Initiated Educational  Policies That Are Modifying The Education Sector

Major changes have been made to India’s educational system.
Over the years, the Indian government has implemented a number of initiatives to support skill development and education. Private institutions can adopt these policies’ concepts and use them to increase their revenues.
Here are a few of the key educational policies that have lately been established.
Digital Payment
Prakash Javadekar, the Union HRD minister, promoted the advantages of digital payment by implementing cashless payment across all centrally-aided institutions.
No Detention Policy
For all students in grades 5th to 8th, the HRD Ministry amended the previous rule to allow for promotion to the following class. The new policy makes passing every exam necessary in order to advance to the following class.
Male Students can also file for sexual harassment
The number of incidents of sexual harassment against male students has significantly increased. Male students may now report instances of sexual harassment thanks to new rules established by the UGC.
Gender Education Must Be Required
Telangana’s government mandated gender education as a requirement for graduation. Along with doing so, it was the first state in India to do so, and it also brought in multilingual textbooks.
Yoga classes 
Yoga sessions are now required in all ICSE and ISC institutions, according the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE).
Free higher education for students with disabilities
The government of Guwahati has established a programme that will provide these kids with free education from Class 9 to the university level in all government-run institutions of higher learning.
No homework for students of class 1st and 2nd
No homework may soon become reality. Prakash Javade, the minister of human resource development (HRD), suggested that students in grades 1 and 2 might no longer have homework.
New guidelines for girls’ education
A “modern education policy” is something the government wants to implement. The new education policy’s (NEP) main emphasis will be on females’ education. It intends to eliminate educational inequity.
Eklavya schools 
By 2022, Scheduled Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST) students will have access to Eklavya schools, which will be modelled after Navodaya schools. It will offer athletic instruction and skill development. Additionally, it will contain unique spaces for conserving regional art and culture.
Diksha scheme 
The Indian government will soon introduce the integrated B.Ed programme and develop the learning portal “DIKSHA” to improve teaching abilities.
Sports Education
The government of India is proposing to make sports education a component of the Fundamental Rights and to promote it countrywide.
 Reducing the bag’s weight
For lower primary classes, the Department of Primary and Secondary Education intends to implement ideas like “no bag day” and a lighter bag requirement.

Quality Education- Part of Sustainable Development Goal

Quality Education- Part of Sustainable Development Goal


Sustainable development goals are actions to create a just, fair, and equitable world ensuring no one is left behind. In 2015, all member states of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda is comprised of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) that provide a shared blueprint for a more peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable future for all.

Quality education

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Education is a key to escaping poverty. Over the past decade, major progress was made towards increasing access to education and school enrolment rates at all levels, particularly for girls.

More than half of all children and adolescents worldwide are not meeting minimum proficiency standards in reading and mathematics. In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, a majority of countries announced the temporary closure of schools, which affect the education of children worldwide.

The covid-19 has created a great education crisis. Most education systems in the world have been affected by education disruptions and have faced unprecedented challenges. School closures brought on by the pandemic have a great effect on children’s learning and well-being. It is estimated that 147 million children missed more than half of their in-class instruction over the past two years. This generation of children could lose a combined total of $17 trillion in lifetime earnings at present value. School closures have affected girls, children from disadvantaged backgrounds, those living in rural areas, children with disabilities, and children from ethnic minorities more than their peers.

Early indications from low-income countries based on phone surveys point to a small decline in attendance upon a return to school but a larger increase in repetition, which may increase dropout rates in coming years. The participation rate in organized learning one year before the official primary entry age rose steadily in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, from 69 percent in 2010 to 75 percent in 2020. In most countries, early education facilities and schools were partially or fully closed for more than a full school year.

Insufficient skills are often mentioned as an impediment to effective information and communications technology use. Only 10 percent of countries could more than 70 percent of individuals carry out one of the activities that compose basic skills.

Gender inequalities remain for many indicators. Basic school infrastructure is far from universal. In 2020, approximately one-quarter of primary schools globally did not have access to basic services such as electricity, drinking water, and basic sanitation facilities.

Shares among least developed countries tend to be substantially lower. During the pandemic, schools in comparatively disadvantaged areas were less equipped to keep children and staff safe. In 2020, there were about 12 million pre-primary school teachers, 33 million primary school teachers, and 38 million secondary school teachers working in classrooms around the world, and 83 percent of primary and secondary school teachers were trained.

Thus, this sustainable goal aims to improve the education facility worldwide and provide good quality education which can lead to removing poverty.

Ensure continuity of quality education during the pandemic

The Minister of State for Education Shri Sanjay Dhotre participated in the G20 Education Ministers’ Meeting on 22nd June, 2021. The meeting was hosted in blended mode by Italy. G20 Education Ministers exchanged views on how to progress on the fight against educational poverty and inequalities, especially in context of the Covid 19 pandemic. The ministers also resolved to share innovative experiences implemented during the pandemic to ensure the continuity and quality of learning pathways through blended education

Representing India, Shri Sanjay Dhotre reiterated the country’s commitment towards reducing and eventually eliminating educational poverty, inequalities and early school leaving. Speaking on National Education Policy, 2020, the Minister said it envisages equitable and inclusive education for all, withspecial focus on children and youth, especially girls, from socially and economically disadvantaged groups who are more at risk of being left behind.

Shri Dhotre said that the Indian education system has made steady progress towards bridging gender and social category gaps in all levels of education through multiple interventions. Some of these include increasing intake capacity of schools; tracking out-of-school children; monitoring the learning outcomes of vulnerable students; ensuring physical safety & zero tolerance to breach of child rights;  mid-day meals to ensure health of children; enabling mechanisms for Children With Special Needs ; promoting multiple pathways to learning and strengthening open and distance learning programmes. 

Regarding ensuring educational continuity during the pandemic, the Minister shared that India has promoted blended learning extensively.   Digital educational content has been made available on various e-learning platforms like DIKSHA, SWAYAM and several others which can be accessed by Anyone, Anytime, and Anywhere free of cost. Permissible online component in conventional education has been increased from 20% to 40%. Over 100 top ranked universities have been allowed to introduce full-fledged online education programmes. In order to address the digital divide, India has been making extensive use of the SWAYAM PRABHA TV channels and the Community Radio. The Digital infrastructure is being expanded rapidly. A National Education Technology Forum is being   set up under NEP 2020 to aid technology led education.

The Government also took special care to address mental health issues of students through counseling programmes like Manodarpan and others, he highlighted.

Shri Dhotre said that India reaffirms its support to the collective efforts of the G-20 countries to reduce educational poverty, inequalities and early school leaving. India also supports the collective efforts of G20 countries to further improve and strengthen blended learning initiatives on the basis of the lessons learnt during the pandemic to ensure education continuity.

The Education Ministers adopted a declaration at the end of the meeting

Later in the day, a Joint Meeting of Ministers of Education and Ministers of Labour and Employment was also held virtually. G20 Ministers exchanged views on transitions from school to work. Shri Sanjay Dhotre represented Ministry of Education  in the meeting. Ministry of labour & employment was represented by MoS (I/C) Shri Santosh Gangwar.

Addressing the participants, Shri Dhotre said that it is essential that we, the member countries of G20,   recognize the need to equip our youth well for a smooth transition into the work space after completing their education. This is especially important for learners from socially and economically disadvantaged population groups, who are more at risk of being left behind.

The Minister stated that India is committed to helping its youth develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for the 21st century global work space. Our approach has been to integrate vocational education with general academic education, with focus on demand driven, competency based, and modular vocational courses, he added.

The Minister highlighted that National Education Policy 2020 provides for early vocational exposure in middle and Singapore international secondary school and its smooth integration into mainstream education.. It aims that by 2025, at least 50% of learners in the school and higher education system would have exposure to vocational education. He further said that the NEP 2020 also provides for vocational education to be aligned to skill gap analysis and mapping of local opportunities. Vertical mobility for students from the vocational stream is being ensured through a National Skills Qualifications Framework. Standards under this framework will be aligned with the International Standard Classification of Occupations maintained by the International Labour Organization”. This Framework will be the basis for Recognition of Prior Learning, and reintegration of dropouts from the formal system, he added. 

Shri Dhotre informed that India is also enhancing post education apprenticeship opportunities for youth by realigning the existing scheme of National Apprenticeship Training Scheme.

He said that India attaches great importance to the collaboration between G20 countries in the field of vocational education and training. He reaffirmed the support of the Government of India to the collective efforts of the G-20 countries to develop strategies to ensure smooth transition from education to work.

G20 Education and Labour and Employment Ministers’ adopted a Declaration at the end of the meeting.

Click here for G20 Education Ministers’ Declaration

Click here for G20 Joint Education and Labour and Employment Ministers’ Declaration

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National webinar on Quality Teacher Education, Accreditation, and Teacher Development

 Ministry of Education, AICTE and National Council for Teacher Education organized a national webinar on “Quality Teacher Education, Accreditation, and Teacher Development.”  Dr. Jitendra Singh, MoS (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, PMO and DOPT was the chief guest for the webinar.

Addressing the participants, Dr. Jitendra Singh  said that in line with the vision of Prime Minister, the National Education Policy 2020 will help in realising the goal of New India. The Minister stressed that there is a strong need of aligning professional degree and career choices. He also spoke of integrity in the selection process of teachers and incentivizing best students to take up teaching as a profession.

The Minister said that since ancient times, teachers have been at the centre of education and contributing to the country’s progress. High quality teaching will improve educational outcomes and will lead to holistic development of students.

Prof. Narendra Kumar Taneja, VC, CCS University; Prof. C.K. Saluja, Rtd., CIE, Delhi University; Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar, VC, JNU; Prof. Padma Sarangpani, Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Dr. Maitreyee Dutta (Head), Dept of Computer Science & Engg., NITTTR, Chandigarh; Ma. Ramya Venkataraman, CENTA also participated in the webinar.

The webinar featured two  sessions on (i) Quality Education and Teacher Development (ii) Accreditation. Prof. HCS Rathore, Former VC, South Bihar Central University, and Prof. Mahendra P. Lama, School of International Studies, JNU facilitated the questions/answers/interactions and summarized both the sessions.

The webinar focused on Digital Integration in Quality Education, Impact of Language on Quality Education , Maintaining Quality of Education, Holistic Teacher Development, Teachers of the Future, Teacher’s Role in Developing 21st Century Skills, Quality Technical Education and Accreditation and Teacher Accreditation.

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Quality Education and Educational infrastructure for students of the North –Eastern States

Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said that Government is committed to provide quality education and infrastructure improvement in educational institutions all over India and especiallyto the students of the North –Eastern States of the country. He informed that in this regard, the government has taken some major decisions this year. The government has granted permission for the establishment of permanent campus of Sikkim University (a Central University) at Yangyang at a cost of Rs. 986.47 crore. The government of Sikkim has allotted 300 acres of land at cost of Rs. 15 crore, out of which 265.94 acres of land has already been handed over to the University. The handing over of remaining land is under process.

The Minister also informed that Government has already sanctioned revised cost estimates of 6 NITs at Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Delhi and Puducherry at Rs. 4371.90 crore. With the approved Revised Cost Estimates, these NITs will be fully functional from their respective permanent campuses by 31st March, 2022. The overall student capacity in these campuses will be 6320.