Edu NGO's draft policy offers alternative to NEP

Time of India

22-05-2025

Chennai: An NGO released a draft People's Education Policy on Thursday, suggesting it could be an alternative to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The All India Save Education Committee (AISEC), which came up with the policey, suggested a two-language system in schools and proposed continuing the present 10+2 system with provisions for pre-primary education and three-year undergraduate degrees, and providing free education from pre-primary to Class XII.The NEP proposed restructuring the school education system from the 10+2 structure to a 5+3+3+4 model.
"Pre-primary, primary, and middle schools should be seamlessly integrated. This will facilitate a better transition of children from primary to upper primary classes," the draft People's Education Policy (PEP) said.
"Admission shall not be based on centralised tests like NEET and JEE. Universities or higher educational institutions shall decide their own admission policy for admitting students into undergraduate and postgraduate programmes," said K Yogarajan, secretary, AlSEC.
While allowing universities and colleges to give preference to local students, it suggested reserving 20% of seats for students from other universities and states to balance local aspirations and integration.
The PEP supported the two-language policy. "A student shall learn both the mother tongue and English. In addition, students shall have the option to learn any additional language, and this shall be optional," Yogarajan said.
The alternative education policy also demanded an increase in the allocation to education in the union budget to 10% and 6% of the GDP. State govts shall allocate up to 25% of their budget to education.
It suggested providing free education from pre-primary to Class XII with funding from union and state govts.
The policy wanted to continue with the three-year undergraduate degrees instead of four-year degrees. "Introducing multiple entry and exit is anarchic and will lead to dropouts, leaving these dropouts without jobs.
Three-year degrees allow students to complete degrees by twenty years which makes higher eduation affordable," Yogarajan said.
PEP also opposed introducing vocational education before Class X. "Education up to Class X should be common to all. The introduction of vocational subjects in upper primary schools will invariably replace some subjects that are presently taught," it said.
Yogarajan said the policy will be presented to the union govt and state govts for implementation. "It's the draft policy, and we will make amendments to drafts in the conference to be held in January 2026," he added.
The document criticised the NEP, saying it encourages privatisation and commercialisation of education from pre-school to university level, making it difficult for the poor to access quality education.