Do school children, teachers have adequate awareness about NEP?

New Delhi: Most schools in India run their own curriculum and training requirements and need to be streamlined under NEP guidelines to bring uniformity across the categories at the school level.The responsibility lies not only with the school staff and teachers to know and understand about NEP but they should make an effort to make school children aware about the revised educational policy and how it will make a difference in comparison to the previously existing educational structure. Children adapt to new concepts quickly at a young age. Making them a part of the awareness programmes along with their teachers is only fair.

Change in schooling system, under National Education Policy, has left many puzzled as to how it may benefit lower IQ children to climb the ladder of success. Hans India spoke with students in the National Capital to understand how well they are aware of the opportunities or uncertainties of the NEP, 2020.On one hand, the NEP 2020, has given greater focus to technical subjects, multidisciplinary courses which can pave the way for the tech-enthusiast to build a career in emerging fields such as Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Robotics, Cyber Security and more. The schooling structure has been revised from 10+2 to 5+3+3+4.

The policy claims to support students who opt to learn languages and incorporate native or tribal languages into different subjects. NEP 2020 also states that along with encouraging technical subjects, the policy will also focus on students gaining knowledge on geographical, environmental and social understanding. 18-year-old Sudharkar Gupta (name changed) is studying at an M.C.D school in Pitampura and is awaiting for his 12th board school results. He said that he opted for arts stream in 11th as he struggled to continue in commerce stream and had to repeat an entire year due to low performance. Sudhakar said that while he is able to perform well in subjects such as language (Hindi and English), social sciences, grasp over computer science is a continued struggle.

"My cousin sister goes to the Specialised School of Excellence as she has been performing well in her studies since childhood. Speaking for myself, I want to pursue B.A English Hons from Delhi University, but with competition going biased towards those who learn technical courses, I'm afraid I will achieve bare minimum with an English degree," Sudhakar expressed his reluctance.

He said that if the prospects of climbing the ladder of success remains low with a B.A arts degree, then he would rather drop out and focus on getting a wage job. When explained about the NEP, 2020 revised school structure, Sudhakar says that there is less awareness of the policy among school students. He says that while students with a knack for science are often prioritised over non-performing children as the schools do not organise competitions and seminars to promote social sciences.

As per the Observer Research Foundation, nearly 250 million children across India have been adversely affected because of the school closures and lockdowns in the pandemic times.

The lack of awareness amongst school students on the NEP, 2020, has been the centre of concern for educators as well. 29-year-old Natasha Sen, a private tutor, says that the post pandemic era has left not only students but teachers also confused on the prospects and implementation of NEP.

"I joined an Ed-Tech app in the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first initial months went into adapting online education mode, and now it has been modified into hybrid mode.

From what I've come to know is that NEP will focus on early childhood care and education but how it is being implemented at school level is still foggy," Natasha said.

She went on to explain that most schools in India run their own curriculum and training requirements and need to be streamlined under NEP guidelines to bring uniformity across the categories at the school level.