Five years of National Education Policy: Taking stock of the transition

Indian Express

7 days ago

It is five years since the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 — the country's third such policy since Independence — was cleared by the Union Cabinet. The NEP promised a sweeping reset of both school and higher education.
Some of that vision has made its way into classrooms. But a lot remains on paper, slowed by state-Centre frictions, or held up by institutional delays.
What has worked
School curriculum is changing, slowly: The 10+2 system has been replaced with a new structure — foundational (pre-primary to class 2), preparatory (classes 3-5), middle (6-8), and secondary (9-12). In 2023, the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) laid out the learning outcomes and competencies for each stage.
NCERT has produced new textbooks for classes 1-8 based on this framework. Social science, for example, is now taught as a single book covering history, geography, political science, and economics, replacing separate textbooks for each subject. New books for classes 9-12 are expected next.
First steps of early childhood learning: The NEP aims to make pre-primary learning universal by 2030. NCERT's Jaadui Pitara learning kits are already in use, and the Women and Child Development Ministry has issued a national ECCE curriculum.
Delhi, Karnataka, and Kerala will soon enforce the minimum age of six for class 1 entry. 2023-24 data show a fall in class 1 enrolments to 1.87 crore from the 2.16 crore of previous year, likely due to this age cutoff. About 73% of those enrolled had attended some form of preschool. The big hurdles are better training for Anganwadi workers, and improving infrastructure and teaching quality in early education centres.
National focus for foundational skills: NIPUN Bharat, launched in 2021, seeks to ensure every child can read and do basic math by the end of class 3. A recent government survey found average scores were 64% for language and 60% for math — a start, but well short of universal proficiency.
Credit-based flexibility starts to take shape: The NEP suggested the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC). This, and a National Credit Framework (NCrF) have been developed. UGC rules published in 2021 allowed students to earn and store credits digitally, even across institutions, making it possible to move between courses or exit and re-enter. The system allows students to earn a certificate after one year, a diploma after two, or complete a four-year multidisciplinary degree.
The NCrF brings similar flexibility to school students, where learning hours (including skill-based ones) translate into credits. CBSE invited schools to be part of an NCrF pilot last year.
Common test for college entry: The Common University Entrance Test (CUET), introduced in 2022, is now a key route to undergraduate admissions. NEP 2020 had suggested that multiple college entrance exams should be replaced with a single national test.
Indian campuses abroad and vice versa: IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, and IIM Ahmedabad have set up international campuses in Zanzibar, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai respectively. University of Southampton recently opened in India, after two other foreign universities at GIFT City, Gujarat. Another 12 foreign universities are in the process of being approved under UGC regulations, plus two more at GIFT City, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said earlier this month.
What's in progress
Changes in board exams: The NEP envisages less high-stakes board exams. Starting 2026, CBSE plans to allow class 10 students to sit for board exams twice a year. Karnataka has experimented with this; other boards are waiting to see how it plays out.
The NEP idea of offering all subjects at two levels (standard and higher) is limited to class 10 math, which CBSE introduced in 2019-20.
Holistic report cards, so far on paper: PARAKH, a unit under NCERT, has developed progress cards that go beyond marks, and include peer and self-assessment. But some school boards are yet to make the shift.
Slow progress for four-year UG degrees: Central universities are rolling out NEP's idea of four-year undergraduate degrees with multiple exit options, and Kerala has followed. But in many places, colleges don't yet have the faculty or infrastructure.
Mother tongue in classrooms: NEP encourages the use of mother tongue as the medium of instruction till at least class 5. CBSE has asked schools to begin this from pre-primary to class 2, with classes 3-5 retaining the option of staying or switching. NCERT is working on textbooks in more Indian languages.
What's stuck and why
Three-language formula remains a sticking point: NEP proposes three languages in school, at least two of them Indian. But Tamil Nadu, which follows a Tamil-English model, sees this as an attempt to impose Hindi.
Teacher education overhaul hasn't happened: The National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, due in 2021, is yet to be released. The four-year integrated B.Ed course has been announced under the Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP), but colleges offering existing programmes like Bachelor of Elementary Education (B.El.Ed) are pushing back.
UGC's proposed successor delayed: A 2018 draft bill proposed scrapping the UGC Act and replacing it with an umbrella Higher Education Commission of India (HECI). NEP formalised the idea — HECI would handle regulation, funding, accreditation, and academic standards across higher education, excluding medical and legal. But the Education Ministry is still in the process of drafting the Bill.
No breakfast in schools yet: NEP recommends breakfast along with midday meals. But in 2021, the Finance Ministry rejected the Education Ministry's proposal to add breakfast for pre-primary and elementary classes.
Policy divide between Centre and states: Some states have pushed back against key NEP provisions. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal have refused to sign MoUs with the Centre to set up PM-SHRI schools, citing clauses that require full adoption of NEP.
Tamil Nadu opposes both the three-language formula and four-year UG structure. Kerala and Tamil Nadu argue that since education is on the Concurrent List, the Centre cannot mandate these changes unilaterally.
The Centre has withheld Samagra Shiksha funds from these states, saying the money is tied to NEP-linked reforms. Tamil Nadu has challenged the freeze in the Supreme Court.
Karnataka, which introduced and scrapped the four-year UG model, is working on its own state education policy, an election promise made by the Congress in 2023.