Page 53 - EW August 2025

NEP 2020: Hits & Misses

New 5+3+3+4 school education/curricular structure Public spending on education is 4 percent of
GDP, against the 6 percent GDP target set by
NEP 2020
Compulsory and free-of-charge early childhood
care and education (ECCE) for all children in the Higher Education Commission of India Bill yet to
3-6 age group be tabled in Parliament
NIPUN (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading School students' learning outcomes stagnant as
with Understanding and Numeracy) launched reported by ASER 2024 and PARAKH Survey 2025

National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for Three-language policy resurrected
the Foundational Stage 2022 completed
Southern states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka
NCF for School Education 2023 completed
and Kerala are opposed to the three-language
mandate and have rejected NEP 2020
13,090 PM SHRI Schools upgraded
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal have
CBSE class X board exams to be held twice a declined to establish PM-SHRI schools
year from 2025-26
NCF for Teacher Education, due in 2021, is yet to
PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, be released. The NCF for Adult Education also
and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Develop- pending
ment) Centre established
Holistic education report cards, mandated by
National Credit Framework devised NEP 2020 and developed by PARAKH, are yet to
be adopted by CBSE, CISCE and state boards
Academic Bank of Credits operational
Contending that education is on the Concurrent
Three foreign university campuses in India opera- List of the Constitution, Tamil Nadu has prepared
tional its own State Education Policy. Karnataka set to
follow suit
Four-year undergraduate degree programme
introduced
NEP 2020 mandates switch to four-year inte-
grated B.Ed programme. Only a handul of Central
New IITs, IIMs & AIIMS promoted
and private universities have introduced it; state
universities and B.Ed colleges are yet to make
National Research Foundation established the switch

cal and skilling education. The miss- these partnerships and the response search and innovation in 2024-25 ag-
ing factor in the past has been lack from all parties is good. This makes gregated a mere 0.67 percent of GDP
of coordination between vocational me hopeful that in a short while, a cf. 3.8 percent in the US, 2.7 percent
training institutes and industry. NEP substantially greater percentage of our in China and 4.9 percent in South
2020 rightly urges greater academy- workforce — especially in MSMEs — Korea. Most of India’s higher educa-
industry collaboration to improve will be formally trained,” says Khan- tion institutions are mere teaching
the quality of VET and skilling pro- na, adding that Herbalife India has organisations in which R&D activity
grammes. For India to experience a formally trained over 700,000 of its is perfunctory. This is because after
VET and skills development revolu- independent distributors (sales per- independence under the Soviet-in-
tion, tripartite cooperation between sons) during the past decade. spired socialist model, the Central
government, industry and training Khanna’s observation highlights a government decreed establishment of
institutes is necessary for curriculum major faultline of post-independence the Council of Scientific & Industrial
development, internships and experi- India: enduring disconnect between Research (CSIR) to conduct break-
ential learning. In PHDCCI, we have government, academy and industry. through R&D. But despite establish-
accorded high priority to creating Annual national expenditure on re- ing 1,000-plus research centres coun-

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