Reimagining The Indian School Education System!


The highlights of the new Education policy with regards to school education:

1. The government had said that the focus was on bringing uniformity in education, providing universal access to quality education, improving the quality of elementary education through a new national curriculum framework that focuses on multi-linguistic, 21st-century skills, integration of sports and arts, environmental issues, etc.


2. The policy is focused on Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability of the education system of the country.


3. Right to Education shall cover children in the age group of 3-18 years.


4.


5. The Foundation stage shall focus on rapid brain development, play and active discovery. The Preparatory stage shall focus on build on play and discovery, transition to structured learning. The Middle stage shall focus on concepts in subjects, navigating adolescence. In Secondary stage the focus shall be to prepare for livelihood and higher education. The secondary stage would be consisting of 8 semesters.


6. The new policy aims to transform curriculum and pedagogy by 2022 to encourage holistic development with minimal rote learning. Curriculum to develop language proficiency, scientific temper, sense of aesthetics, ethical reasoning, digital literacy, Knowledge of India and current affairs. The curriculum shall be integrated with equal emphasis on all subjects – no hierarchy. No hard separation of curricular, co-curricular and extra curricular areas.


7. The curriculum shall be flexible with choices for students, reduced curriculum load, emphasis on key concepts and essential ideas. The curriculum shall have space for experiential learning and allow for analysis and reflection. The core concepts & skills with higher order capacities shall be assessed.


8. Creation of inclusive school environment and inclusive curriculum. Three language formula - Multilingualism shall be promoted from Foundation stage.


9. Two years of B.Ed program shall continue till 2030. After that only 4 year education programs shall be approved. The 4 year education program must include Disciplinary and Teacher preparation courses, Stage specific, subject specific programs to prepare teachers from Foundational to Secondary stage. Substandard and dysfunctional teacher education institutes shall be shut down.


10. The policy aims to render school governance more local, effective while facilitating the sharing of resources across school complexes. A cluster of 30 public schools from Foundational to Secondary stage within a contiguos geography. The policy aims to create an effective administrative unit without compromising access as it will not require physical relocation of schools.


11. Regulation and operation of schools shall be carried out by separate bodies to eliminate conflict of interests. New State School Regulatory Authority – independent state wide regulatory body shall be created for each state. Directorate of School Education shall handle operations of public school system. SCERT to lead all academic matters for all school education. Each SCERT to develop a School Assessment & Accreditation Framework – this shall be used as the accreditation framework by the State Regulatory Authority. Board of Certification / Examination shall issue certification of school completion. This board shall not have a role in determining curricula or textbooks. Sample based National Achievement Survey of student learning levels to continue. States may continue to conduct a census based State Assessment Survey.


12. The policy aims to provide access to vocational education to atleast 50% of learners by 2025. Also this policy aims to achieve 100% youth and adult literacy by 2030.


13. Every child will come out of the system with atleast one skill.


14. Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog: The NEP aims to create a new apex body, the Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog or National Education Commission, headed by the Prime Minister of India. The penal will be responsible for developing, articulating, implementing, evaluating and revising the vision of education in the country.


I find the objectives, focus points of the New National Education Policy highly aspirational and inspirational. If the entire curricula has to be reframed before 2022, the government should get more abled youngsters and Management consultants like us who work with schools.


The first step to revolutionize the education system, we need to start at reframing the curriculum of teacher training diplomas and 2 year courses along with curriculum reframe for all grades. The government must bring about 4 year education program within 2023 instead of waiting till 2030. Only if we introduce it atleast within 2023 we can achieve good quality of education by 2030.

The best way to do it fast would be to have different teams for each segment. Also instead of having multiple boards within the same country we must look at standardizing one particular syllabus or atleast same curriculum for each level across various educational boards.

The second step shall be to create pedagogy to make the teachers understand that along with concepts, it is important for teachers to help their students enjoy their classes and the method through which they learn.

The third step is to create Teacher evaluation mechanisms. A nation wide evaluation mechanism has to be developed. If the policy's school complexes concept is not implemented properly the school governance can become very complicated and be loaded with extreme office politics culture.

Step 4 is to focus on school accreditation and governance norms commonly issued for both public and private schools.

Step 5 is to create a holistic evaluation and conceptual understanding evaluation system for every child.


To rephrase the 5 key steps:

• Reframe, revamp and restructure curriculum (of students and teachers)

• Pedagogy styles (to be framed using simple cost effective materials)

• Holistic teacher evaluation mechanism and teacher recruitment norms

• School accreditation and governance mechanism

• Measuring a holistic evaluation system for tracking progress and potential of a child. (if the above 4 steps fall in place, this will be easy to implement as it will be an outcome of the entire system)

These basic steps will help to create a holistic Education system and is capable to REIMAGINING THE INDIAN SCHOOL EDUCATION SYSTEM.

While government is working on these steps it is important for private schools to up their game or else they might be lost.

Indian education system can be brought on par with or above the global education standards utilizing our strengths, while implementing simple strategies instead of complex systems.

Top 5 trends that will pave way for creating levers for a strong education system in India :


Focus on concept based learning with fun

Emerging trends of blended learning

DIY learning

Personalized learning approach

                             AI, Gamification, Virtual reality and Augmented reality 

and other Edu tech advancements



As Jiddu Krishnamurti says “True education is to learn how to think and not what to think!”

Looking forward to play a role to revolutionize the Indian School Education System.



Regards,
Aparna Subramanian,
CEO & Founder,
Transformational Business Solutions
aparna@tbscorp.co.in

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