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Cover Story

NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2020

VISIONARY CHARTER

EDUCRACY SHADOW

Formulated after an interregnum of 34 years and crafted over four
years following recommendations of two high-powered committees,
the new education policy aroused great expectations. But NEP 2020 is
an amalgam of high rhetoric clouded by implementation uncertainty
because of its conspicuous failure to make a clean break from
bureaucratic control-and-command

Dilip Thakore
T HE GREAT EXPECTATION WAS THAT versal access to quality education is the key to India’s con-

The policy charter acknowledges that “providing uni-
the new National Education Policy
2020 formulated after an interregnum
tinued ascent and leadership on the global stage in terms
of 34 years and crafted over four years
of economic growth, social justice and equality, scientific
advancement, national integration and cultural preserva-
following the detailed recommenda-
tions of two high-powered — TRS
Subramanaian (2016) and the Dr. K.
Indian education — excessive bureaucracy, chronic under-
Kasturirangan (2018) — committees, tion”. But it fails to address the debilitating problems of
funding and under-regulation of public education, a sin
would be a monumental, path-breaking blueprint. The an- compounded by over-regulation of the country’s relatively
ticipation was a re-engineering of the world’s largest educa- superior private education system. When the diagnosis is
tion ecosystem to extricate 21st century India’s 256 million faulty, repairing a dysfunctional system is certain to be a
school children and 30 million youth in higher education long and painful trial-and-error treatment.
from the mire in which they have been floundering for over Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal, the newly rechristened edu-
seven decades. Instead, the 65-page policy document pre- cation minister, who began his career in a Shishu Mandir
sented to the public at a virtual press conference in Delhi school promoted by the RSS, the ideological mentor or-
by former Union human resource development (HRD) ganisation of the ruling BJP and was awarded this critical
minister Prakash Javadekar and incumbent Union educa- position in May 2019, promises that NEP 2020 “will bring
tion minister (the name of the ministry has changed) Dr transformational reforms in school and higher education
Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ (a nom de plume) on July 29, systems in the country,” according to a ministry statement
is an amalgam of high rhetoric clouded by implementation issued on July 29 by the Press Information Bureau of the
uncertainty, because of its conspicuous failure to make a government of India. His deputy, Sanjay Dhotre, minister
clean break with bureaucratic control-and-command. of state for education, is more bullish. “NEP 2020 is the

40 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2020