Latest News
News Information Bureau | 30th July 2020
New Education Policy 2020: Single Regulator of Higher Education, MPhil degree to discontinue
The Union Cabinet has approved the National Education Policy 2020, making way for large scale, transformational reforms in both school and higher education sectors.
Genesis of education policies in India
- As early as 1948, the Union Government established the University Education Commission and the Secondary Education Commission in 1952 to develop proposals to modernise India’s education system.
- Post-independence, University Education Commission under Dr S Radhakrishnan recommended creation of UGC. UGC was created in 1953 and granted statutory status in 1956.
- Second Five Year Plan focused on opening institutes of great importance and NCERT for primary and secondary education. Another Education Commission in 1964 was established under the chairmanship of Dr DS Kothari with the objective of modernising education in India.
- First National Education Policy in 1968, was a “radical restructuring” & provided equal opportunity to achieve national integration & economic development.
- 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1976 curbed the deteriorating condition of education by shifting it to the concurrent list.
- National Education Policy, 1986 called for a “child-centred approach” in primary education & launched “Operation Blackboard” to improve infrastructure. It also emphasised on inclusive opportunity for women, SC & ST’s.
- 1992 modification to the National Education Policy, 1986 focused on strengthening higher education by its “Common Minimum Programme” which envisaged common entrance examination on all India basis for admission to professional and technical programmes in the country.
- 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 made Education ‘a Fundamental Right’, under Article 21-A and imbibed education related provisions in Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties too. In 2009, the Right to Education was enforced providing compulsory education to all children of age 6-14.
- Right to education has helped to increase the enrolment rate quickly with which government is now focusing on improving the quality by training teachers under Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission & 4 year courses for B-Ed.
- T.S.R. Subramaniam Committee Report (May 27, 2016).
- Dr. K. Kasturirangan Committee Report (May 31, 2019).
- Huge rate of drop outs in primary and elementary education.
- Weak teaching faculty coupled with training facilities, outdated curriculum and poor infrastructure.
- Exam oriented with focus on rote-learning system.
- Poor employability of graduates.
- Wide disparities across socio-religious groups, genders and regions.
- Universalisation from Early Childhood Children Education (ECCE) to Secondary Education by 2030, aligning with SDG4.
- Attaining Foundational Learning & Numeracy Skills through National Mission by 2025.
- 100% GER in Pre-School to Secondary Level by 2030.
- Teachers to be prepared for assessment reforms by 2023.
- Inclusive & Equitable Education System by 2030.
- Board Exams to test core concepts and application of knowledge.
- Every Child will come out of School adept in at least one Skill.
- Common Standards of Learning in Public & Private Schools.
- School Education
- New Policy aims for universalisation of education from pre-school to secondary level with 100 % Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in school education by 2030.
- NEP 2020 will bring 2 crore out of school children back into the main stream through open schooling system.
- The current 10+2 system to be replaced by a new 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively. This will bring the hitherto uncovered age group of 3-6 years under school curriculum, which has been recognised globally as the crucial stage for development of mental faculties of a child. The new system will have 12 years of schooling with three years of Anganwadi/ pre schooling.
- Emphasis on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, no rigid separation between academic streams, extracurricular, vocational streams in schools ; Vocational Education to start from Class 6 with Internships
- Teaching up to at least Grade 5 to be in mother tongue/ regional language. No language will be imposed on any student.
- Assessment reforms with 360 degree Holistic Progress Card, tracking Student Progress for achieving Learning Outcomes.
- A new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, NCFTE 2021, will be formulated by the NCTE in consultation with NCERT. By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed. degree .
- Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education to be raised to 50% by 2035; 3.5 crore seats to be added in higher education.
- The policy envisages broad based, multi-disciplinary, holistic Under Graduate education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification. UG education can be of 3 or 4 years with multiple exit options and appropriate certification within this period. For example, certificate after 1 year, advanced diploma after 2 years, Bachelor’s degree after 3 years and Bachelor’s with research after 4 years.
- Academic Bank of Credits to be established to facilitate Transfer of Credits. It will be established for digitally storing academic credits earned from different institutes so that these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned.
- Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERUs), at par with IITs, IIMs, to be set up as models of best multidisciplinary education of global standards in the country.
- The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.
- Higher Education Commission of India(HECI) will be set up as a single overarching umbrella body the for entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education. HECI to have four independent verticals – National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) for regulation, General Education Council (GEC ) for standard setting, Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for funding, and National Accreditation Council( NAC) for accreditation. Public and private higher education institutions will be governed by the same set of norms for regulation, accreditation and academic standards.
- Affiliation of colleges is to be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism is to be established for granting graded autonomy to colleges. Over a period of time, it is envisaged that every college would develop into either an Autonomous degree-granting College, or a constituent college of a university.
- An autonomous body, the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), will be created to provide a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, administration.
- NEP 2020 emphasises setting up of Gender Inclusion Fund, Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups.
- New Policy promotes Multilingualism in both schools and higher education. National Institute for Pali, Persian and Prakrit, Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation to be set up.
- The Centre and the States will work together to increase the public investment in Education sector to reach 6% of GDP at the earliest.
- Keeping in line with the recommendations of the TSR Subramanian Committee, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development has been renamed as the Ministry of Education.
- NEP 2020 has been formulated after an unprecedented process of consultation that involved nearly over 2 lakh suggestions from 2.5 lakhs Gram Panchayats, 6600 Blocks, 6000 ULBs, 676 Districts. The MHRD initiated an unprecedented collaborative, inclusive, and highly participatory consultation process from January 2015.
- In May 2016, ‘Committee for Evolution of the New Education Policy’ under the Chairmanship of Late Shri T.S.R. Subramanian, Former Cabinet Secretary, submitted its report. Based on this, the Ministry prepared ‘Some Inputs for the Draft National Education Policy, 2016’.
- In June 2017 a ‘Committee for the Draft National Education Policy’ was constituted under the Chairmanship of eminent scientist Dr. K. Kasturirangan, which submitted the Draft National Education Policy, 2019 to the Hon’ble Human Resource Development Minister on 31st May, 2019. Later, the Draft National Education Policy 2019 was opened for views/suggestions/comments of stakeholders, including public.
- Improving teacher’s quality in primary and secondary education.
- Minimising student-teacher ratio.
- Shifting from rot-learning practice to developing understanding.
- Schools should be learning centres not burden.
- Regulating tuition fees charged by private un-aided schools.
- Imbibing scientific temper by improving higher education.
- Complete autonomy to institutes of high importance on the basis of international best practices.
- While China’s J20 Chengdu jets are called fifth generation combat jets, compared to 4.5 generation Rafale, the J20 have no actual combat experience.
- Whereas the Rafale is combat proven, having been used by the French Air Force for its missions in Afghanistan, Libya and Mali. It has also been used for missions in Central African Republic, Iraq and Syria. Rafale can also carry more fuel and weapons than the J20.
- Each aircraft has 14 storage stations for weapons. The jets come with one of the most advanced Meteor air-to-air missiles. The 190-kg missile has a Beyond Visual Range (BVR) of over 100 km, traveling at a top speed of Mach 4. The F16 jets, used by Pakistan, carry the AMRAAM missile, which has a BVR of 75 km. Rafale can also outperform F16 in dogfights.
- The Rafale jets also come with SCALP, the air-to-ground cruise missile with a range over 300 km. It is a long-range deep strike missile.
- The MICA air-to-air missile on Rafale is for both, close-quarter dogfights, and for BVR. At the last-minute, India has also asked for HAMMER (Highly Agile and Manoeuvrable Munition Extended Range), which is an air-to-ground precision guided missile produced by French conglomerate Safran, and can be used against bunker-type hardened targets within the range of 70 km.
- Rafale (built by Dassault Aviation of France) can attain a maximum speed of Mach 1.8/750 kt (2,222.6 km per hour) and can climb up to 50,000 ft.
- Though Rafale can fly up to a range of 3,700 km, it can be refuelled mid-air.
- The 15.27 metre long aircraft has wing length of 10.8 metres each.
- While Sukhoi 30 MKI can carry ammunition up to 8,000 kg, Rafale can easily carry bombs up to 9,500 kg.
- Rafale can carry out all combat aviation missions, including air defence, close air support, in-depth strikes, reconnaissance, anti-ship strikes and nuclear deterrence.
- Its ‘delta wings‘ are extremely stable and have supersonic speed.
- Rafale’s cannon can release over 2,500 rounds in one minute.
- The aircraft’s advanced engine is capable of allowing the throttle to shift from combat to idle power in less than three seconds.
- It can jam enemy radars, detect targets anywhere including sea, ground and air.
- Other superior capabilities include close air support, dynamic targeting, air-to-ground precision strike, anti-ship attack capability and buddy-buddy refuelling.
- The advanced Rafale aircraft can carry a nuclear weapon, and deploy long range air-to-air missiles, laser-guided bombs with different warheads and non-guided classic bombs.
- A pre-pack is an agreement for the resolution of the debt of a distressed company through an agreement between secured creditors and investors instead of a public bidding process.
- This system of insolvency proceedings has become an increasingly popular mechanism for insolvency resolution in the UK and Europe over the past decade.
- In India’s case, such a system would likely require that financial creditors agree on terms with potential investors and seek approval of the resolution plan from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
- This process would likely be completed much faster than the traditional CIRP which requires that the creditors of the distressed company allow for an open auction for qualified investors to bid for the distressed company.
- In the case of pre-packs, the incumbent management retains control of the company until a final agreement is reached.
- The transfer of control from the incumbent management to an insolvency professional as is the case in the CIRP leads to disruptions in the business and loss of some high-quality human resources and asset value.
- The key drawback of a pre-packaged insolvency resolution is the reduced transparency compared to the CIRP as financial creditors would reach an agreement with a potential investor privately and not through an open bidding process.
- Experts said this could lead to stakeholders such as operational creditors raising issues of fair treatment when financial creditors reach agreements to reduce the liabilities of the distressed company.
- Unlike in the case of a full-fledged CIRP which allows for price discovery, in the case of a pre-pack the NCLT would only be able to evaluate a resolution plan based on submissions by the creditors and the investor.
- The MoU for the reconstruction of the temple at Lalbazar, Natore was signed in 2016. The Government of India provided a grant assistance of Taka 97 lakh for the reconstruction of the historic temple under its High Impact Community Development Project (HICDP).
- The Government of India provides developmental assistance to Bangladesh for the direct benefit of local communities under its High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDPs) scheme.
- Several projects in the Rajshahi division including construction of Ramakrishna Temple, a two storied Adibasi Shagshoil School and Niamatpur Girls’ Hostel, Small Developments Projects at Rajshahi City Corporation, restoration of Sree Sree Anandomoyee Kali Mata Mandir, construction of ground floor and first floor of Mahiganj Girls’ High School and college etc. have been taken up under this scheme in Bangladesh.
POSTED ON 30-07-2020 BY ADMIN
Next previous 
General Studies
Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
List of previous year essay topics (1997-2019)
IAS GOOGLE is googled by the team of Raja Sir’s Cracking IAS Academy. Sources include The Hindu, Indian Express, pib.nic.in, Down To Earth, Economic Times, Vigyan Prasar, AIR and the like. IAS GOOGLE has been prepared in pace with emerging UPSC Trends.