Principal's Desk: 'NEP 2020 will bring the desired changes in education'

Revolution is a much-needed impetus for the growth of the human society. Reforms are needed in each and every field especially in the field of education. The latest revolution in the system of Indian education has come with the origin of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

This highly-awaited policy will bring the desired changes in the field of education. The first Education Policy was implemented in the year 1986. After 34 long years, NEP 2020 came in existence.

Structure of School Education as per NEP & Implementation

According to David A. Kolb, learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. The NEP 2020 focuses on experiential learning, equity and discovery-based teaching learning methods. We at our school promote this with the help of peer tutoring as voluntary, fun creative, collaborative and joyful exploratory activities in classroom for experiential learning and deeper student learning.

We are creating an inviting classroom where students feel happy and comfortable. Toys are a vital component of learning. Implementing the NEP, the students in our school are taught in an interactive manner with the use of toys. Under the guidance of the NEP, the schools will focus on skill-enhancement of the students.

Efforts will be made to eliminate rote-learning and emphasis will be laid on experiential learning. Our school focuses on modern gurukul system wherein the students are taken for in-house trips and skill enhancement by competent teachers. We strive hard to cultivate ‘21st-century skills’ among students, including critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity and digital literacy.

In our school, we provide a wide variety of subjects to the students within the selected streams but the implementation of the NEP will broaden the prospects for students by dissolving the streams and providing them with a choice of innumerous subjects according to their will.

Integration of technology will be done to improve classroom processes and schools will achieve their academic goals with ICT classrooms. Right now also, we are using technology-supported classrooms but keeping in mind experiential learning we will have to adopt a blended technological approach.

Inter-disciplinary approach is the vision of the NEP. Art-integrated education will be embedded in classroom transactions not only for creating joyful learning but also for imbibing the Indian ethos through integration of Indian art and culture in the teaching and learning process at every level. This art-integrated approach strengthens the linkages between education and culture. The students can be assigned projects of art integration encompassing two subjects that will focus less on theory and more on understating and creativity for better comprehension of the concept. For example, subjects like Science and Arts can be integrated and students can be given a project on “Conservation of Water”, to divert themselves from theoretical knowledge and understand the concept in the most artistic manner.

The most convenient language for teaching the primary section students is preferably the mother tongue. Medium of instruction until grade 5 will be mother tongue. The practice of mother tongue helps in better conceptualisation of the content. All classical languages will be widely available in schools as options. Our school promotes various languages such as Hindi, English, Sanskrit, German, Chinese and French.

The NEP suggests recruitment of more special educators for the inclusive education of the physically and mentally disabled children. The school has appointed the special educators to cater to the needs of the special students and it promotes equity and inclusive education. As per the NEP , the school curriculum should be inclusive and provide equity to all the students. Eventually, we are gearing up for implementing the vision of the NEP, which came after 34 years. The NEP will certainly encompass the needs of the students making them skilful learners who are competent to face real time challenges. Schools must train the faculty and provide inclusive curriculum to promote inclusion and equity in education for the holistic development of the students. The NEP is going to benefit the new generation for dominating the global education and help bring about the revolution for a new India.