Journal Press India^®

Union Cabinet of India on July 29, 2020 approved the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to replace NEP 1986 which continued for 34 years despite disruptive innovative technologies, industry 4.0, and other compelling reasons for holistic development of people. It was also long overdue in the light of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and now Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The global education development agenda reflected in the Goal 4 (SDG4) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by India in 2015 - seeks to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030. Such a lofty goal will require the entire education system to be reconfigured to support and foster learning, so that all of the critical targets and goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can be achieved. 

NEP 2020 is a step towards a more holistic and multidisciplinary education and takes care of early age of child in the new model of 5+4+3+4. The ancient concept of good education comprising of 64 Kalaas will be brought back in form of Liberal Arts as per NEP 2020. Exposure of all 64 Kalaas should be given to children in School from 3 to 14 years of age so that they can choose their path between 15 to 18 years of age. The boundaries of streams will also go away as per NEP 2020 which means that combinations of subjects can be chosen by a student from science, commerce, arts streams.

Undergraduate degree programme will be of 3-year or 4-year duration with multiple entry and exit option. Those who would complete one year would be entitled for a certificate if they are unable to continue the education further with an option to come back to continue the journey further. Those who would leave after two years would be entitled for a diploma. After three years they would be entitled for a degree. Fourth year will allow research degree at the UG level with Masters of one-year duration. M. Phil. Degree will be discontinued. Master’s degree to be of one- or two-year duration after 4 year and 3 years of Bachelor’s, respectively.  Integrated 5-year Bachelor’s/Master’s Programme and Ph.D. after Master’s degree will be allowed.

 Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) will be established to store academic credits at the national level without any discrimination regarding the source of credit earned. All those Universities who would be part of ABC will have to accept the credit earned by the students of all the other Universities which are part of the ABC.

MERU (Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities) at par with IITs, IIMs will be set up to meet the challenge of becoming part of top 500 Universities of the world as per World University Rankings like Times Higher Education ranking, QS ranking, etc. Most of the Colleges will be made autonomous colleges to enable them to have more innovation in curriculum design, teaching and learning process, etc.

I invite all of you to XXII Annual International Conference on the broad theme Five Trillion $ Economy: The Way Ahead” from Jan. 8 to 9, 2021 in the online mode as per the new normal. The XXII Annual International Seminar Session is on the theme "NAAC RAF and Role of IQAC in Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions" scheduled to be held on Jan. 8, 2021.

I present to you the current issue of DBR and request you to share your feedback to enable us to further improve the quality of DBR.

Rtn. Prof. Ajay Kumar Singh

Editor-in-Chief – DBR

Vice Chancellor – Sri Sri University