The National Education Policy 2019 drafted by Dr. K. Kasturirangan, former Chairman, ISRO was submitted to Union Human Resource Development Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' and Minister of State for HRD, Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, on 31st May 2019.
The Draft NEP 2019 talks extensively on School Education, Higher Education, Technology in Education, Vocational Training, Adult Education - which in effect means the whole gamut of intricacies involved in Education has been touched upon.
If the NEP 2019 has to become a Law it has to be done through an Act of Parliament - which means both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha has to pass it and then the President of India has to consent by signing it. However, NEP can remain a Policy Document, in which case it might be circulated to all the States and Union Territories, for them to use as Guidelines. If NEP becomes a National Law, all the 29 States and 7 Union Territories are required to follow the Law in toto. The upshot of NEP turning into a Guideline Document is that the States are not required to implement the Guideline diligently; in such a case the exhaustive NEP might well end up being just an ornamental aphorism.
Now coming to the controversial aspect - the aspect of Language in Draft NEP 2019. The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages, while India is home to 30 Languages (Census 2001). While the NEP should be talking in terms of "National", Section P4.5.9 Flexibility in the choice of languages: dwells into Languages to be studied by Students. In a country that has over 30 Languages (spoken by more than a million - Census 2001) the three language formula specified in this section, is bound to raise questions from political leaders from States. The categorization of States as Hindi-Speaking States and Non-Hindi-Speaking States could have been entirely avoided. It could have been simply stated as - The Nation shall follow a 3 Language Policy instead of categorization of States. This establishes the contrariety in the Policy, from being a policy guideline to improve the quality of education and thereby improve the competitiveness of future adults, to thrust a specific number of languages to be studied by a student. For example, what is the correlation between number of languages and Maths - should a child learning to add numbers in the medium of instruction should also learn to add numbers in 2 other languages? Just asking!
Applying the 3 Language Policy in a Non-Hindi State like Tamil Nadu will be a tricky affair. The first question that will be asked is, what is the need and purpose for a third language?
Ref: Draft NEP 2019
The Draft NEP 2019 talks extensively on School Education, Higher Education, Technology in Education, Vocational Training, Adult Education - which in effect means the whole gamut of intricacies involved in Education has been touched upon.
If the NEP 2019 has to become a Law it has to be done through an Act of Parliament - which means both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha has to pass it and then the President of India has to consent by signing it. However, NEP can remain a Policy Document, in which case it might be circulated to all the States and Union Territories, for them to use as Guidelines. If NEP becomes a National Law, all the 29 States and 7 Union Territories are required to follow the Law in toto. The upshot of NEP turning into a Guideline Document is that the States are not required to implement the Guideline diligently; in such a case the exhaustive NEP might well end up being just an ornamental aphorism.
Now coming to the controversial aspect - the aspect of Language in Draft NEP 2019. The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages, while India is home to 30 Languages (Census 2001). While the NEP should be talking in terms of "National", Section P4.5.9 Flexibility in the choice of languages: dwells into Languages to be studied by Students. In a country that has over 30 Languages (spoken by more than a million - Census 2001) the three language formula specified in this section, is bound to raise questions from political leaders from States. The categorization of States as Hindi-Speaking States and Non-Hindi-Speaking States could have been entirely avoided. It could have been simply stated as - The Nation shall follow a 3 Language Policy instead of categorization of States. This establishes the contrariety in the Policy, from being a policy guideline to improve the quality of education and thereby improve the competitiveness of future adults, to thrust a specific number of languages to be studied by a student. For example, what is the correlation between number of languages and Maths - should a child learning to add numbers in the medium of instruction should also learn to add numbers in 2 other languages? Just asking!
Applying the 3 Language Policy in a Non-Hindi State like Tamil Nadu will be a tricky affair. The first question that will be asked is, what is the need and purpose for a third language?
Ref: Draft NEP 2019
