Journal Press India^®

Even after the  dawn of the  21st Century and 16 years after that, India still is following the  National Policy  on Education which was  framed in 1986  and then it was modified in 1992.  The world  has grown at a very  fast pace  after 1986  which calls  for a new  National Policy  on Education keeping in mind the context of technological developments, changing aspirations  of the  changing demographics, changing aspiration of India in the  global context, etc.

If India aspires to lead  the world  by becoming a knowledge superpower then it has to equip the young minds with necessary skills and knowledge, develop a culture of innovation and research, and ensure seamless interaction between academics and industry.

For the first time, the Government of India is embarking on a time-bound grassroots consultative process, which will enable the  Ministry of HRD to reach out to individuals across the  country through over 2.75 lakh direct consultations while also  taking input from  citizens online by September 30, 2016.  All the details related to developments made so far are available on the website of Ministry of HRD, Government of India. (http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/nep/Inputs_Draft_NEP_2016.pdf.

Vision of National Education Policy (NEP) 2016

NEP 2016  envisions a credible and high-performing education system capable of ensuring inclusive quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all and producing students/graduates equipped with the  knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that are  required to lead  a productive life, participate in the  country’s development process, respond to the requirements of the fast changing, ever globalising, knowledge based economy and society.

Mission of National Education Policy (NEP) 2016

1. Ensure equitable, inclusive and quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all – children, youth, and adults – and to promote the  realisation of the  nation’s human potential to its fullest, with equity and excellence.
2. Ensure that school  and higher education as  well  as  adult education programmes inculcate an awareness among children, youth and adults of India’s rich heritage, glorious past, great traditions and heterogeneous culture, and promote acquisition by the  learners at all  levels of values that promote responsible citizenship, peace, tolerance, secularism, national integration, social  cohesion and mutual respect for all religions, as well as universal values that help  develop global citizenship and sustainable development;
3. Foster quality education with a strong focus  on reforms relating to curricula, learning materials, pedagogic processes, learning assessment, teacher quality and performance, and institutional leadership and management with a view to enabling all students at all; levels of education to attain the  specified learning outcomes (knowledge, skills, attitudes and values) that are  required to lead  a productive life,  participate in  the country’s development process, and respond to  the  emerging global challenges;
4. Promote acquisition by all learners of relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for work  and entrepreneurship as well as skills and competencies that replace rote  learning and allow them to be more creative and innovative, to think critically, to communicate effectively, to solve problems independently, and to be able  to contribute to the national development process.

Goals and objectives of National Education Policy (NEP) 2016

1. The  overall goal  is  to  foster quality and relevance of education and raise the credibility of India’s education system, improve employability of the  products of school and higher education system, ensure equitable access to education, from early childhood education to tertiary education, including technical and vocational education and training (TVET)  as  well  as  lifelong learning opportunities, and ensure that educational opportunities are  available to all  segments of the  society,
2. The  main objectives of education for the  fulfillment of the  vision and mission are  as follows:
3. Expanding early childhood education services to ensure that all  pre-school age  children aged 4-5 years attain the  learning and developmental readiness required for smooth transition to primary education, with particular attention to children belonging to disadvantaged population groups; Achieving universal elementary and secondary education and ensuring that all secondary education graduates have access to higher secondary education and all higher secondary education graduates have equitable access to higher education and that all enrolled students are supported to successfully complete their education with all of them achieving expected learning outcomes;
4. Ensuring that all  education programmes are  made accessible, inclusive, and responsive to  the needs of diverse groups of children and young people with special focus on students from disadvantaged population groups, particularly children, adolescents and youth with special needs and with various forms of disabilities, and ensuring that all enrolled students are  supported to enable them achieve the  expected learning outcomes;
5. Ensuring that social, regional, and gender gaps in  education are  eliminated and gender equality and girls’  and women’s  empowerment are  promoted throughout the  education system;
6. Expanding opportunities for skill  development and ensuring acquisition by young people and adults of the  skills and competencies for life and work,  including technical and vocational skills that are required for employability, work  and entrepreneurship and for adapting to an ever-changing world of work;
7. Ensuring that young people (15-24  years) and adults (15  years and above)  who  are  outside the formal education system, including those working in the informal sector of the economy, are provided with opportunities to attain skills for employability;
8. Reform higher education system in order to ensure equitable access to tertiary education, including technical and professional education, narrow group inequalities in access to higher education, and improve teaching and research, promote innovation and generate new knowledge across all higher education institutions and to  enable all  enrolled to  attain the  specified learning  outcomes and employability skills;
9. Ensuring integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education, especially for improving access to education, enhancing the  quality of teaching-learning  process, training  of teachers, and strengthening educational planning and management.
10. Ensuring that  the systems of teacher  development and management,  including continuing professional development of teachers, are  reformed to  ensure adequate supply of qualified and competent teachers who possess the  prescribed competency profile and the  prescribed professional standards for teachers;
11. Ensuring that all  youth and at least 90%  of adults, both  men  and women, achieve literacy and numeracy skills prescribed by the  adult education programmes;
12. Institutionalising a responsive, participatory and accountable systems of educational planning, governance and management and ensuring that the educational planning and management practices structures for the  planning and management of the  education sector at the national, sub-national and local levels are  improved and made more responsive to the  emerging educational priorities and demands of the  expanding education sector;
13. Professionalising and enhancing the  capacity of institutional leadership, and ensuring that the leadership in the education sector at the national, sub national, and institutional levels are improved to respond to the emerging educational priorities and demands of the  expanding education sector;
14. Ensuring increased and well-targeted financing for educational development programmes.

The  direction of the  future education agenda is anchored in a lifelong and sector-wide perspective. The policy envisages broadening the  scope of education to facilitate various pathways to learning depending on learners’ choice and potential and in relation with skills required for the world of work while ensuring recognition and certification of learning outcomes acquired by learners through formal and non-formal learning modalities, including open  and distance learning modes.

We hope that the  Ministry of HRD, Government of India would  ensure that all the  aspirations of all the stakeholders are  duly  taken into  account before finalising the  New  Education Policy.

I am pleased to present this issue of DBR with thought provoking articles from varied aspects and also delighted to share with you the  Index Copernicus Value [(65.33 (2015)].  I also invite you to present your research papers in the  XVIII  Annual International Conference on broad theme “India’s Score  Card in Global Perspective” scheduled to be held  from  Jan. 6 to 7, 2017,  at India Habitat Centre, New  Delhi.

Rtn. Prof. Ajay Kr. Singh