The New Education policy 2020, is highly ambitious, focusing on multi-dimensional development of personality of students from school to college. Doing post-graduation would be almost history under the new dispensation. One has to complete graduation and go straight for research. MPhil would be redundant. Introducing 360-degree assessment system for students is fantastic. The students will have to self-assess their performance before getting assessed by peer groups. Will the students be intelligent and fair enough to assess themselves? A plebeian suggestion it is that needs a re-think.
Learning music, painting, sculpturing and other works of art along with science and humanities will, no doubt, give flexibility to students to fine-tune their interests and educational predilections. Another noteworthy feature of the new policy is that it makes it mandatory for students to study up to Class 5 in their mother tongue. During my schooling in a sarkari school I started learning English language from Class 6 onwards. Earmarking 6% of GDP for the education sector, as against 4% at present, was long overdue. Fair enough. But, the first priority remains jobs creation. A multi-faceted personality and absence of jobs will lead to a contradictory situation that is described by, “Padhey Farsi, Baichey Tel”.
Do we have trained teachers and infrastructure to cope up with this new education policy? It will have to pass through many tests and hurdles. Keeping standards of new education policy at par in all states is not so easy as the policy perceives. Success of the new policy will depend on how soon we overcome the road blocks in implementation. The outcome of the policy will determine its success or failure. The policy will take several years to operationalise.
We are living in a highly competitive world. Knowledge of English is the sine qua non in the global jobs industry. Changing the medium of instruction will remain a subject of perennial controversy between the elite schools and sarkari schools and will further sharpen the urban-rural divide. All things considered, the new education policy is a change for the sake of change. Fulfillment of the BJP manifesto promised in 2014 is, no doubt, creditable, but it could be fraught with political undertones and overtones as we along.

Waris Itoo and Saira Nikhat Imam