The draft of the National Education Policy has been submitted to the Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal and Minister of State for HRD Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre in New Delhi. Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability is the basis of this draft. The policy aims at equipping students with skills and knowledge, target shortage of manpower in science, technology, industry and academics.

Proposed Changes

  1. Rename MHRD as Ministry of Education (MoE).
  2. Reconfiguration of curricular and pedagogical structure with early childhood care and education (ECCE) becoming an integral part of school education
  3. Extending Right to Education Act 2009 to cover children of age groups 3 to 18. A 5+3+3+4 curricular and pedagogical structure in tune with cognitive and socio-emotional developmental stages of a child.: Foundational Stage (age 3-8 yrs): 3 years of pre-primary plus Grades 1-2; Preparatory Stage (8-11 years): Grades 3-5; Middle Stage (11-14 years): Grades 6-8; and Secondary Stage (14-18 years): Grades 9-12. Schools will be re-organized into school complexes.
  4. Reduction of content load in school education curriculum.
  5. No separation of learning areas in terms of curricular, co-curricular or extra- curricular areas and all subjects including arts, music, crafts, sports, yoga, community service etc will be curricular.
  6. Pedagogy that focuses on the development of core capacities and life skills
  1. Transformation in teacher education by shutting down sub-standard teacher education institutions and all teacher preparation/education programmes to be taken up in multidisciplinary universities/colleges.
  2. The 4-year integrated stage-specific B.Ed. programme to be made mandatory as the minimum degree qualification for teachers.
  3. Restructuring of higher educational institutes into three categories –

Type 1: With focus on world-class research and high quality teaching

Type 2: With a focus on high quality teaching across disciplines with significant contribution to research;

Type 3: High quality teaching for undergraduate education. This will be further driven by two Missions – Mission Nalanda & Mission Takshashila.

  1. Restructuring of Undergraduate programs of 3 or 4 years duration with  multiple exit and entry options.
  2. A new apex body Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog for holistic and integrated implementation of all educational initiatives and programmatic interventions coordinating efforts between the Centre and states.
  3. The National Research Foundation for creating a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education
  4. The four functions of standard setting- Funding, Accreditation and Regulation to be separated and conducted by independent bodies: National Higher Education Regulatory Authority to be the only regulator for all higher education including professional education.
  5. Creation of accreditation eco-system led by revamped NAAC.
  6. Professional Standard Setting Bodies for each area of professional education and UGC to transform to Higher Education Grants Commission (HEGC).
  7. The private and public institutions to be treated at par and education to remain a ‘not for profit’ activity.
  8. Various policy initiatives to promote internationalization of higher education, strengthening quality of open and distance learning, technology integration at all levels of education, adult and lifelong learning and initiatives to enhance participation of under-represented groups and eliminate gender, social category and regional gaps in education outcomes  
  9. Promotion of Indian and classical languages and setting up three new National Institutes for Pali, Persian and Prakrit.
  10. Recommendation for Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI)  

Source: India today-Education