Page 64 - EducationWorld September 2020

Special Report

IMPLEMENTING NEP 2020

EXPERT ADVICE

FOR CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

Against the backdrop of spreading pessimism, EducationWorld
presents suggestions and recommendations of seven carefully
selected education leaders for implementing the new education
policy in seven critical domains

Summiya Yasmeen

T HE INITIAL EUPHORIA THAT by the West Bengal government to evaluate the NEP 2020,

greeted the new National Educa-
rejected the policy on the grounds that it “lacks clarity and
tion Policy (NEP) 2020 promulgat-
may not be equally applicable to the entire country due to
its differing cultural heritage”.
ed on July 29, is dying down as the
sobering realities of implementing
Certainly the shadow of bureaucracy looms over NEP
this elaborate policy prescription to
transform India into “an equitable
by implementation uncertainty because of its conspicuous
and vibrant knowledge society by 2020. “The policy is an amalgam of high rhetoric clouded
failure to make a clean break with bureaucratic control-
providing high-quality education to and-command,” wrote il ip T h a k ore , editor of this
D
all, and thereby making India a global knowledge super- publication, in the August cover story of EducationWorld,
power,” are dawning on the commentariat. titled ‘NEP 2020: Visionary charter, educracy shadow’ (see
The ambitious school, higher and vocational education www.educationworld.in).
reforms set out in the country’s first education policy of More important, the billion dollar question increasingly
the 21st century require that the Central and state govern- being posed in print and social media analyses of NEP
ments — education is in the concurrent list of the Constitu- 2020 is about funding the grand architecture and design
tion — to constitute a bewildering array of committees and of NEP 2020. With the Covid-19 crisis wiping out tens of
regulatory bodies, and legislate dozens of new education thousands of businesses and livelihoods, and the economy
laws. Some state governments have already expressed their contracting by an unprecedented 24 percent in the first
apprehensions about implementing NEP 2020. For in- quarter of fiscal 2020-21, tax revenues of the Central and
stance, on August 31, a six-member committee constituted state governments have plunged and social welfare expen-

64 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020