The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 has been approved by the Union Cabinet on 29th July 2020. NEP 2020 is the first education policy of the 21st century, which aims to address the many growing developmental imperatives of our country and is aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The National Education Policy, 2020 is built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability.

NEP 2020 recommends many transformational ideas for school education. The New Education Policy emphasized to ensure universal access to high-quality ECCE across the country in a phased manner. Special attention and priority will be given to districts and locations that are particularly socio-economically disadvantaged.

A 5+3+3+4 curricular and pedagogical structure based on cognitive and socio-emotional developmental stages of children has been proposed:

• Foundational Stage (age 3-8 years): 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
• Secondary Stage (14-18 years): Grades 9-12.

It also seeks to ensure foundational literacy and numeracy in a mission mode and a host of curricular changes and reduced content load in school education curriculum as well assessment reforms for holistic development of students. There will be no hard separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams, etc.

Source:-

https://innovateindia.mygov.in/nep2020/

Rajeev Ranjan