Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched several new initiatives to mark the 1st Anniversary of National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), which was launched on 29th July, 2020.
i.NEP 2020 is the 1st education policy of the 21st Century, it replaces the National Policy on Education, 1986 (NPE, 1986).
ii.The 5 pillars of NEP 2020 are Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability.
iii.It aims to increase India’s investment in education to 6% of Total GDP.
iv.The newly launched initiatives are
- National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR) & National Education Technology (NETF) – To provide a digital and technological framework to India.
- Vidya Pravesh – A three-month play-based school preparation module for Grade 1 students. Under the program, children and parents of remote areas will have access to playschools.
- Launch of Indian sign language as a subject at secondary level.
- NISHTHA 2.0 (National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement) – An Integrated Programme for teacher training designed by NCERT.
- SAFAL (Structured Assessment For Analyzing Learning Levels) – A competency based assessment framework for Grades 3, 5 and 8 in CBSE schools
- A New website dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
- The Academic Bank of Credit system was also launched.
- Launch of 1st Year Engineering Programmes in regional languages & Guidelines for Internationalization of Higher Education.
Academic Bank of Credit System
Academic Bank of Credit will act as a Digital Bank that holds the credit earned by a student in any course.
- It will promote academic mobility by creating a formal system of Credit Accumulation, Credit Transfer & Credit Redemption.
- The credit system will also enable Multiple Entry & Multiple Exit options for students in Higher Education.
SAFAL Initiative of CBSE
Structure Assessment For Analysing Learning (SAFAL) is a competency-based assessment programme introduced by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for Grades 3,5 & 8.
- It will evaluate the progress of foundational skills and basic learning outcomes among students. It aims to address rote memorization.
- SAFAL will provide developmental feedback to schools and will not be used for any other purposes, including promotion to higher grades.
- The Assessment will be conducted on a pilot basis in CBSE schools during the academic year 2021-22, in key curricular areas of Language, Mathematics, Environmental Studies (EVS), Science.
National Education Technology (NETF)
NETF will assist State/Central Governments, educational institutions to make decisions on induction, deployment, and use of technology.
- It will provide the latest knowledge, research, and best practices with the stakeholders.
AICTE Tool for Regional Languages
NEP 2020 emphasizes the importance of education through regional languages.
Under the new policy, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will use regional languages as medium of instruction or offer programmes bilingually.
- It will increase the access to education & also the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER).
- AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) has developed an AI-based tool for automatic translation of courses into regional languages.
- 13 AICTE approved technical institutions will impart technical education in regional language from 2021-22 on a pilot basis.
NISHTHA 2.0 is a teacher training program designed by NCERT. It aims to improve learning outcomes by improving the quality of teaching.
- Elementary Teachers and Headmasters will be trained in online mode on DIKSHA Platform (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing).
- More than 40 Lakh Pre-primary, Primary & Secondary level teachers will be covered.
|NDEAR (National Digital Education Architecture) & NETF (National Education Technology Forum)||To provide a digital and technological framework to India.|
|Academic Bank of Credit System||A Digital Bank that holds the credit earned by a student in any course. It will promote academic mobility and enable Multiple Entry & Multiple Exit options for students.|
|SAFAL (Structure Assessment For Analysing Learning)||A competency-based assessment programme for Grades 3,5 & 8 to assess the progress of foundational skills and basic learning outcomes.|
|Vidya Pravesh||A three-month play-based school preparation module for Grade 1 students. Children and parents of remote areas will have access to playschools.|
About Ministry of Education (MoE)
Union Minister – Dharmendra Pradhan (Rajya Sabha – Madhya Pradesh)
MoS – Annpurna Devi (Koderma, Jharkhand), Dr. Subhas Sarkar (Bankura, West Bengal), Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh (Inner Manipur, Manipur)