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New Education Policy 2020: An Insight into the higher education with special reference to Tripura

After a gap of more than three decades the third New Education Policy was launched on Wednesday, July 29, 2020. On the same day, the Union cabinet approved the comprehensive policy framework that aims to revamp the country’s education system and also to guide the development of education in our country. Union Ministers for Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Prakash Javadekar and Human Resource Development (HRD) and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, made the announcement on the NEP- 2020.

Earlier on 1st of May 2020 Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had reviewed the NEP- 2020, for which draft was prepared by a panel of experts led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Kasturirangan.

The NEP 2020 aims at making “India a global knowledge superpower”. Such an understanding makes the NEP distinctly different from earlier educational activities. In the context of the overall educational scenario and status of education in our country, a dire need has been felt in the new millennium to overcome both indigenous and global challenges through knowledge and educational resources that draws on past experiences and modern technological developments. It is expected that the NEP-2020 would surely contribute towards conceiving and creating a more humane and equitable society. In the proposed New Education Policy significant changes have been incorporated beginning from Primary to Ph.D level. This article would primarily focus on the higher education sector with special reference to the State of Tripura.

The policy envisages systemic and structural changes in higher education. A format for remodelling higher educational centres into three types of institutions — research-intensive universities, teaching-intensive universities and degree colleges — will be developed. The proposed policy aims at alignment with global standards for accelerating the professional pace of learners. The discourse on higher education has changed drastically with a focus on multi- and trans-disciplinary initiatives.

This policy also envisages a new structure of higher learning in the form of four-year graduation with a provision for multiple-exit options, and a one-year masters’ programme to meet the global aspirations. The proposed National Research Foundation will promote seminal as well as community-oriented research that has national importance. In the perspective of Tripura, it is the most important steps in higher education.

The policy aims for the all-round growth of every student in scholastic and co-scholastic domains and emphasises educating the students, teachers, and parents to nurture their potential to serve the nation. Its flexibility allows learners to select their chosen field of study and successive pathway in life following their academic and professional tendency and interests. The NEP will help to replace the rote method of learning and examination-based education with a system based on conceptual understanding that aims to perfect the student’s analytical skills.

This policy is in tune with the ideals of Swami Vivekananda (education being a manifestation of the perfection inherent in human beings), the vision of APJ Abdul Kalam (education being capable of transforming humans as a creative and reflective being) and the approach of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (antyodaya). It obviously bears the signature of the visionary, dynamic and democratic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making India self-reliant Bharat. All Indians should embrace NEP whole-heartedly. The challenge is to implement this policy in letter and spirit. There is a need to create comprehensive, efficient and realistic guidelines and framework. I am fully convinced that the present exemption will ensure this to happen for the good of humanity.

In these circumstances the New Education Policy-2020, especially holistic undergraduate education with a flexible curriculum permiting multiple exit options and appropriate certification within this period would be more effective decision in Tripura. Tripura is a state where most of the students hail from poor socio-economic background. Academic Bank of Credits system also motivates the higher education level students for continuing their studies.

The NEP-2020 also emphasizes for setting up of Gender Inclusion Fund, Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions. This endeavour will be of great help to the marginalized sections of the society in the state of Tripura. Higher education is the strongest instrument for the development of a nation. We observed that higher education system has been undergone a rapid quantitative and qualitative changes during the last two decades. In the context of expansion of higher education in the quantitative front, it the proposal to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher to be raised to 50% by 2035 is surely an achievable target for Tripura. The GER shows an increasing trend over the past few years in case of Tripura. The State Government has a declared policy to provide access to higher education to all the interested pass-out students. The proposal for creating additional seat capacity of 3.5 crores over a certain period would also bring the justice for equity, access and equality for the prospective students. However, the quality of students needs to be improved through intervention of latest technological methods of teaching-learning process. I Moreover there is lack of skill oriented as well as job oriented courses.

It is experienced that regular counselling and mentoring is required for improving the motivation level of the students especially in higher education.

At present, there are three universities (1 State Univ. 1 Central Univ. and another Private Univ.), 22 General Government Degree Colleges, one National Institute of Technology (NIT), one Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), one State Government Engineering College, Six Polytechnics, separate colleges for Agriculture, Horticulture and Fishery, two medical colleges and five colleges for B.Ed. course for imparting higher education in the State. The most striking and common feature of all these institutions have been suffering from inadequate number of faculty members in proportion to the number of students enrolled. In addition to this, one peculiar characteristic is the existence Post Graduate Teachers (PGT) in the General Degree Colleges which creates inequality among the teaching fraternity. It is observed that the absence of a fair and transparent transfer policy for the teachers not only disturbs and demotivate the faculty members but also vitiates the smooth teaching-learning environment of colleges. All most all the general degree colleges are running without any designated Principals to lead and to look after the academic and administrative activities of the institutions. It is hoped that with the implementation of the NEP-2020 the above mentioned problems would be minimized to a great extent.

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The NEP-2020 mandates affiliation of colleges is to be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism to be established for granting graded autonomy to colleges. Over a period of time, every college is expected to develop into either an autonomous degree-granting College, or a constituent college of a university. There is also a proposal that all colleges which are running as a single-faculty having less than 1000 students would either be converted into a multi-discipline college or would be merged with another college having multi-disciplines. Some colleges of Tripura would fall under this category. These colleges are actually located in hilly-areas where majority of the inhabitants belong to tribal and marginalized section of the society. In the context of Tripura, these small colleges can be merged with a big college or with an autonomous college as proposed in the new NEP. The idea of allowing foreign universities to set up their campuses in India is a welcome step provided care needs to be taken by them for preserving our national heritage and culture.

In Tripura all most all colleges are managed, governed and funded exclusively by the state government. The existing pattern of financing leaves little scope of generating revenues for the institutions. The colleges can be allowed to raise their finance by way of giving financial autonomy to these institutions. However, students coming from socially and economical backward families should be exempted from payment of fees in the nature of tuition fee, development fee etc.

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The proposal for establishment of Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) as a single umbrella body with four verticals namely NHERC, GEC, HEGC and NAC for regulation, standard setting, funding and for accreditation respectively for all categories of higher educational institutions except medical and legal education; would ensure better governance, rational funding, up-gradation of quality, creating an environment of improved and innovative teaching-learning, proper intervention of ICT based tools and techniques etc.would surely transform the Indian higher education system at par with international standards.

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