New Education Policy Pros & Cons👨‍🎓 | Group Discussion | Batch D1 | RTU Kota

A very warm welcome to each and everyone present here with us today. The topic for today's group discussion is new education policy pros and cons. As William Pollard rightly said, without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable. I believe that the new education policy is an essential stepping stone in the path towards the development of our country, India. The primary focus of NEP is to ensure universal access to affordable education and equal opportunities for all the children in the country. It also aims at providing quality holistic education, including vocational education for preschool to grade 12, which is an absolute method to tackle unemployment and thus tackling poverty. Yes, I also think that changing the education policy was a bit necessary and one of the things which I like the most about this new education policy is that they are introducing coding from 6th class onwards. Like we all know how much importance coding has in present world. So, this is a clearly a great step and the other thing which I didn't like, which I do not like about this new education policy is that they have introduced this 3 language formula. Like they are saying that, okay, so let me start from the beginning. So, there were 2 drafts of NEP. In the first draft they said, okay, there are 3 languages and Hindi is compulsory. So, as soon as they released this draft, all the non-Hindi speaking states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, they started protesting. So, they realized their mistake and they replaced it in their second draft saying that, okay, now there will be 3 languages and 2 of them have to be in Indian language and the third language the student or the school can choose by themselves. So, considering the scenario, there is a school in Maharashtra. So, if it is in Maharashtra, so one of the languages which it will be offering would be Marathi because it is a regional language and again it is an Indian language and let's say the other language which it is offering is English. So, now the student has a choice of selecting a third language but the language should be an Indian language. So, now most of the students will choose Hindi unless if someone belongs to a particular region. So, he or she might opt for his own regional language. So, again, I think this is some sort of a burden on students. Also, by introducing a third language, you are just increasing the burden on the students. Like already they are having 5 subjects and you are introducing a sixth one. So, you are just increasing the stress on the students. And I would also like to continue regarding a new point. First of all, don't include the mother tongue in school. They introduce the mother tongue in every school and India is already facing a severe teacher shortage that is leading to high quality teaching. The number of students in the country is very high regardless of the ratio of teachers and in addition to this, finding a qualified teacher, teaching staff is challenging in itself. Next comes the challenge of maintaining one's mother tongue. Say, an example, during Maths, Social Science textbook, in each mother tongue, in a curriculum task itself. As you know, not everyone can teach Maths in mother tongue because circles are like a goal. And it is entirely understandable that the government wants to play a similar role with Germany, China, etc. Their foreigners have to learn the language to be able to manage the country better. At the same time, that NEP is marked in that way. It does not mean that 22 languages are operating in India instead of one national language in other countries. But in my opinion, the establishment of new education policy is correct because the main aim of new education policy is to achieve 100% youth and adult literacy. By the year 2030, it will be mandatory to have at least a 4-year BA degree for joining the occupation of teaching. No student should be deprived of higher education due to financial inability. To make education inclusive, financial support will be provided to socially and economically disadvantaged. Till now, many higher education institutes are providing limited courses. With National Education Policy 2020, colleges would either fully be integrated into a university or converted into an autonomous degree-giving institution. This allows faculty for an college. Colleges will become multidisciplinary institutions by providing a wide choice of subjects. New education policy also aims to increase the professional-government ratio in higher education, including vocational education, from 26.3% in 2018 to 50% in 2035. And it also aims to add 3.5 crore new fees to higher education institutions so that more and more students can take the benefit from it. I agree with you. Everything has two aspects. In this, I personally think that National Education Policy 2020 is really good because it's going to change the school system of 10 plus 2 to 5 plus 3 plus 3 plus 2 in which the students from the age group of 3 to 6 are also going to be studying. So, I personally think that this is a good thing. And since a lot of developed nations are already using this kind of technique, I think it's personally better than just two. Dr. Kalam used to say the purpose of education is to make good human beings with skill and expertise. Enlightened human beings can be created by teachers. That is what the new education policy brings to us. Before the implementation of new education policy, one of the first and major criticism point is that our education system tries to put students into three categories. That is science, commerce, and humanities. And that is very problematic. If you choose one steam, you cannot study the subject of other steam. For example, when I was in 11th, I chose the science steam, but I was helpless. Having hoped for science steam, I could not study subjects like political science and economics. Because our previous education system does not allow me to do that. But now the government has changed this. Now students have more flexibility to choose their subjects. After the implementation of this policy, a student can study political science with physics and chemistry with history. A student can study science, arts, as well as commerce subjects. So, it is a great I want to say that the government has done a great job increasing the GDP. The percentage of percentage of GDP dedicated towards education, it was increased from 3% earlier to 6% now. And it's heartening that government finally recognized the importance of education. And the government has also started to phase out college affiliation and autonomy will be granted to the small colleges. And same level of accreditation and regulation will be implemented for both private and government colleges. So, that I think is a really good step moving forward. And many, many multidisciplinary higher education institutions will also be established. So, the students have much more choice in what they want to study for the higher education. So, that I think is a really good step because it diversifies the choice one have for the future. I want to say something then. According to the National Education Policy 2020, students willing to complete their graduation have to study for four years while one can easily complete his or her diploma degree in two years. This might increase the people to leave the course midway. According to the National Education Policy 2020, students of the private schools will be introduced to English much earlier than the students of the government schools. The academic syllabus will be taught in the respective religion language of government school students. This is one of the major new education policy that perhaps this will increase the number of students uncomfortable in communicating in English, thus winding the gap between sectional of societies. Yeah, actually the new education policy in 2020 came after 30 years and is all set to change the existing academic system of India or other countries with the purpose of making it as with the international standard of academics. The government of India aims to set up the NEP by the year 2040. Till the targeted year, the key point of the plan is to implement it one by one. The proposed reform by new education policy will come into effect by the collaboration of the central and state governments. According to this, there are many benefits also. The students of the private schools will be introduced into English at a much earlier age than the students of government schools. The academic syllabus will be taught in the respective regional languages of the government school students. This is one of the major new education policy drawbacks. This will increase the number of students uncomfortable in communicating in English, thus widening the gap between sections of the society. Okay, a lot of you said that the introduction of mother tongue or the introduction of English is a hindrance. The students will have to face a lot of stress. But don't you think that learning an extra language is always an added advantage? Yes, I have a point inside one if the students are not able to because the ability to learn language is very much more present in the students at a very lower age. Like there's a study that tells if the child reaches about 10 years then the ability of him learning a new language decreases significantly like by 50 or 60 percent. He can't learn a new language at a certain age. Before that, it's easy for him. So if English was standardized and introduced from an earlier age, yeah it would be difficult for the child but it will definitely benefit him later on because then he wouldn't have to like waste so much time in the later classes just understanding what the teachers are saying. Okay, what you are saying is, I have a point regarding the same. The government is saying that this is called multilingualism which is like learning more languages which will increase your knowledge. So I have one question, tell me one thing like is it a language which increases your knowledge or is it a subject? Like even a five-year-old knows how to speak Hindi but we can't accept him to know the entire literature of Hindi. So I don't think that this will do more bad than doing any good with the students. But essentially, you need a language to communicate. If you learn more languages, you will be able to communicate better. I think 20 has many merits but it also has a share of demerits which I would like to discuss. The first policy as Akshat mentioned the school system. The 10 plus 2 system will be divided into 5 plus 3 plus 3 plus 4 format and this is supposed to start with the age of three years. The problem with this policy is making it compulsory for a three-year-old to enroll in a school doesn't seem right when the ideal age to start school in most countries is anywhere between four to six years of age. If you start school early and dump on them to study, it may cause mental health problems for the child. And the second policy is vocational training. The NEEP 2020 states that at least 50% of learners going through the school and higher education system shall have exposure to vocational education. The problem with this policy is I don't understand what the kind of vocational training exposure you provide to class six students according to the requirement of that grade or locality. However, I do have an idea. Who will be the 50% who will be opting or met to opt for the modern child labor? It doesn't make sense since you make shortage of plumber, electrician, carpenters, workers, laborers, industrial laborers in that particular village or locality. You will have the children trained on that accordingly and this is called child labor. The vocational training exposure at such an early age will also lead to school workouts. Once they are skilled, the children from the economically and socially backward classes will move towards earning based on the skill due to the poverty or will be pushed in the direction by the oppressors, thereby systematically denying higher education to the poor and socially backward Yes, I also think the same that okay, you continue. New education policy is a good move because it is being proposed after a long time. Last policy was proposed in 1986. So it is coming after a long time. However, the Ministry of Education seeking help from schools and teachers, they are organizing many events to get the data. Recently, they have launched a competition for teachers. To propose challenges, different themes in different areas. First comes the problem of including mother tongue in schools. The qualified teaching staff is a challenge in itself. And the next challenge is introduction of coding from sixth grade. If you don't know English, how are you going to develop coding skills? It is not like a hardcore coding, but there they may be handicapped over there. And you need to have a proper system. As majority of the parents may not be able to offer the laptop for their children to develop coding skills. And many of the schools don't even have a computer lab. Even though if they have only limited computers for sharing among students. I think government is starting giving more fund for solving this problem. They are starting having computer labs in the government school as well. Yeah, they have computer labs in small schools as well. Yes, so I was saying that I agree with Adish that introducing this vocational training thing will increase the level of school dropouts. Because if a student belongs from a poor background, then his or her priority is to take a job as quickly as he can. So obviously, if you are giving him or her some skill, then he will learn that skill and will take any low paying job or any job because it is his or her priority. So I also agree on this point. But I don't think that it's that big of a problem. Because if they don't learn the skill, I don't think that if they studied in 12th standard and even pursue higher education, do you really think that they... No, I'm not saying that vocational training is completely wrong. What I think is that they should also consider concessing the fee of the schools. I know that government school has negligible fee, but not all schools have negligible fees. Like they should put some restrictions on private schools and all. And if the fees is low, then students will be willing to complete their higher studies or even their school studies. Yeah, I do agree with Anirudh. But I would like to include that the key goal of the new education policy is to increase investment in education sector. See, they told us that according to this policy, they would increase 6% of the GDP according to national education policy. The central and the states will work together to increase the public investment in the education sector to reach 6% of the GDP at the earliest. You know, they aims to do this in like 2030, I believe. Yeah, they will try their best to reach their goal that they will increase this public investment through working together. After 12th, there is a multiple. It means that you started a BTEC degree and one year later, you realize that you do not want to continue it because of some reason. All the subjects you have studied for one year, you can take their credit and get it transferred to another degree. So, this is extremely useful according to me. So, what I think is you are not emphasizing on the skill part, right? This new education policy is emphasizing on the skill part more. You know, it is bringing out, it is asking schools to develop the skill-oriented learning. And what I think is education is nothing without adapting the particular skills which are needed to survive, right? So, what I think is this new education policy is a boon for Indian students and it is a boon because of the skill-oriented learning rather compared to the original traditional learning which are supposed to be there in the education system. And what it does is it has introduced coding from class 6 onwards. So, yes, this is, I mean, this is a good step since like in our age also we all are, some of us are scared of coding, right? Yeah, I agree with Anish. As we know that the present era is the modern era. All work finished with technical tools. So, the new education policy is an emphasis to use technical tools like computers, online courses, IT tools, many other social media platforms which are extremely useful to enhance knowledge. The new era education, I mean, the new education policy will set up a good computer labs in schools and there will be a digital board so that students will learn about technical tools at an early age. So, we can say it will also improve the digital India mission. It will change our schools and education and represent as a developed nation school. So, that's the major key point here for the new education policy that I believe is a perfect way representing our India as an educated or I might say as a developed country. Yes, you are right. It also reduces that rot learning also. Because if we look today's education system, it is only based on what we say is extremely rot learning or full-on deltafication. So, it also reduces that means, if we, means we have learned physics in our 9th, 10th and 11th, 12th class also. But if we ask any student to please change the bulb of our home, then it means he might not be able to do it well because we have not taught us to use that application in our daily life. So, it will also help us in use of our knowledge in our daily life or in education in practical domain also. Also, some points of this policy said that this policy is very theoretical. It does change things theoretically but to implement them in practically in real life is going to be very long drawn and difficult process because there are so many government schools where children in the 5th class have no teachers and infrastructures is not available in schools. The students are not educated properly and they drop out early. So, this is very long driving process of this policy is to be introduced in India. Okay. So, with the introduction of new education policy of 2020, many changes have been made and one of those is the discontinuation of the MPhil course. Even though there are many drawbacks of the new education policy, the merits are more in number. It is believed by many that by implementing these changes, the Indian academic system will be taken a step higher.