Page 32 - Education World September 2021

Expert Comment

Why NEP 2020 prescribes

multi-disciplinary education

VIRAJ KUMAR

KEY PILLAR OF THE NATIONAL Education Liberal education can unlock all inherent
Policy (NEP 2020) is liberal (“holistic and capacities of human beings — intellectu-
multidisciplinary”) education, which sensitises
A students to the fundamentally interconnected al, aesthetic, social, physical, emotional
nature of all human knowledge and enquiry. Given the
tradition of single-disciplinary undergraduate education and moral — in an integrated manner
over the past seven decades since independence, why
NEP 2020 takes a contrary stance requires explanation. cific framework, a substantial number lack the resources
There are three principal arguments. First, no educa- to develop suitable liberal education models de novo. In
tion system should deprive learners of holistic mental the absence of models, some institutions pay mere lip-
development associated with broad-based exposure to service to the idea of liberal education, or develop flawed
multiple disciplinary ways of thinking. A liberal educa- models (for instance, merely offering a set of unrelated
tion enables learners to develop both sides of the brain — courses). Therefore, it is essential to create baseline mod-
creative/artistic and analytic — which can make learning els that institutions can adopt and refine over time.
a joyful experience. Historically, such education has Two models proposed in a book Breaking the Silo:
been unaffordable for most students. The Kothari Com- Integrated Science Education in India (2017), by Anup
mission report (1964) acknowledged this inequity and Dhar, Tejaswini Niranjana and K. Sridhar, could serve as
stipulated that “some study of science should become a a starting point. In the ‘soft integration model’, a propor-
part of all courses in the humanities and social sciences tion of the curriculum is reserved for ‘dialogue’ between
at the university stage, even as the teaching of science multiple disciplines and their respective methodologies
can be enriched by the inclusion of some elements of the to help students recognise the promise and value of more
humanities and social sciences”. NEP 2020 endorses and than one viewpoint. This ‘pedagogy heavy’ model can be
extrapolates this viewpoint. complemented with interdisciplinary projects of similar
Second, the Yash Pal Committee’s report (2009) complexity to traditional projects at the undergraduate
noted: “We have overlooked that new knowledge and level.
new insights have often originated at the boundaries of n the other hand, the ‘strong integration model’
disciplines... one could almost say that most serious prob- Orequires total rethink of the traditional single
lems of the world today arise from the fact that we are discipline-based programme structure. In this model,
dominated by striations of expertise with deep chasms in programmes are defined by critical but sufficiently broad
between.” Such striations have altered the course of his- problem areas such as clean energy or adult literacy, and
tory. For instance, as Prof. Roddam Narasimha noted in fidelity is to the problem (not disciplines) involved. Thus,
1999, the British were able to rapidly close Tipu Sultan’s a clean energy programme will include core courses in
technology advantage in military rockets thanks to stron- physics, renewable energy technologies, energy econom-
ger interconnects between their scientific and technologi- ics, as well as electives attuned to specific research and
cal communities. consultancy projects. In contrast to the pedagogy heavy
Third, for graduates entering a world buffeted by pan- soft integration model, the strong integration model is
demics, climate change, and disruptive technologies such more research/consultancy heavy.
as AI (artificial intelligence), liberal education provides a Both these models necessitate greater interaction be-
combination of transferable and uniquely human skills, tween faculty, between students and faculty, and between
enabling them to adapt to challenging work environ- students. Language fluency is obviously necessary, but ef-
ments. Failure to adapt could result, in the staggeringly fective communication between humans goes well beyond
prescient words of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, to the “obsoles- intelligibility. It requires an understanding of diverse cul-
cence of people”. More recently, the historian Yuval Noah tures, perceptiveness, and sensitivity to differing perspec-
Harari has coined a similarly thought-and-action provok- tives. A liberal education can unlock all human capacities
ing term: the “useless class”. — intellectual, aesthetic, social, physical, emotional and
Even if one accepts some or all of these arguments, she moral — in an integrated manner. Individuals with these
may still wonder how an education system that currently characteristics will provide the bedrock for a better India
fails to provide universal foundational literacy and nu- and better world.
meracy can provide meaningful liberal education at scale.
A one-size-fits-all approach contradicts NEP 2020’s rec-
ognition of the importance of institutional autonomy. At (Viraj Kumar is adjunct professor, NIAS and Dayanand Sagar University,
the same time, it is evident that among the vast majority Bengaluru. This is an abridged version of an address delivered by Dr. K.
of institutions currently operating within a discipline-spe- Kasturirangan on August 11 at NIEPA University)

32 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2021