For as long as the current generation can remember, our education was based on the 10+2+3 system but now we are faced with the introduction of the National Education Policy 2020. We are at the threshold of witnessing a 5+3+3+4 system. That alone is a change big enough to confuse a lot of us, students and parents alike. Whatever apprehensions may be there, the NEP 2020 is on the roll and we will very soon be facing the new system. A lot of things will change along with the implementation of the NEP, not just in the classrooms but in the society as well. For instance, we have all along been felicitating Class 10 Toppers in the 10+2+3 system almost religiously, as if it were a customary practice. Suddenly, it will be changed to the 5+3+3+4 system and we will be looking at new ways to felicitate the Toppers in the news system. But the NEP 2020 entails low stakes Board exams, meaning passing out the equivalent of HSLC under the new system would not call for much fanfare like we do now.
Truly, NEP 2020 is a milestone in the history of education system in India. The National Education Policy 2020 is on the lines of universalizing education from pre-school to secondary level. It replaces a 34-year-old policy to become a more “inclusive, holistic, comprehensive, and far-sighted policy to make India a knowledge hub by the end of this decade.” NEP 2020 aims to recognize the need to evaluate “higher order skills” such as creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, visualization, and idea generation. Memorizing the whole syllabus, “from cover to cover”, which Naga students have always been encouraged to do, will become a thing of the past. Another major change is that the NEP 2020 emphasizes on multidisciplinary learning and there will be no separations made between vocational and academic streams.
Apart from the change in the school curricula structure, there will be a shift in the focus of assessments from academic grades to higher order skills. This can be understood as saying that a student who was considered “brilliant” in the old system just might not be so in the new system. Use of mother language as medium of instruction till class 8 is going to be another interesting change in the new system. The fixed and rigid boundary between arts, science and commerce streams will be blurred.
Now, therefore, our society must prepare well in order to adapt to the new changes. Parents and educational institutions, as well as civil society organizations, student bodies and even the church all have a critical role to play here. Parents of school going students in particular need to be aware of the impending change in order to make informed and educated decisions. It is felt that seminars and orientation programs for parents might be needed.