Overview of New Education Policy (NEP) - 2020

Education system in India:

We all at some point of time have blamed our educational system, like "It does not encourage innovation"

"our education system focuses on memorizing" "it produces robots rather than intellectuals". Even I had concern on it as I was interested more on cultural, sports and other extracurricular activities but the system was only interested in marks/grades in the annual examination.

Well, most of the drawbacks are addressed, recently a landmark policy has been introduced by MHRD  that is New Education Policy -2020 Aka NEP- 2020.

Appreciable key points are given below: 

• 10+2 system has been replaced with 5+3+3+4: Our education system was majorly changed 34 years ago, after that NEP 2020 is next mile stone. Earlier as we know, we had 12 years of schooling in a model of 10+2, in new policy the schooling years is made to 15 years and is divided into 5+3+3+4. Here it focuses on primary and nursery education also as that is the phase when real and maximum mental development of child happens.

• Internship at class 6 and exposure to real world situation: We all faced the situation of coping up with real time world and dilemma in making career choices as what we study in school and colleges had no connection with real world. To address this problem NEP had made a point to give exposure to maximum professions from class 6th it self, so that a child will have a idea of a profession before making career choices, moreover he/she will start respecting other professions and their expertise.

• learning in vernacular/local language: we all know that a child at its early stage will have lot of influence of vernacular/local language and culture. It is human tendency that we grasp the knowledge quickly if it is explained in local and easy language. My early education also happened in vernacular after that I shifted to English, trust me only grasping the concepts matter, medium of education can be changed at any time and its easy.                                                                             If we consider to 20 prosperous countries and European countries, they encourage their local and national language over English.

• Encouraging big international universities to setup campuses in India: It is evident by the facts that a huge number of youth are moving to US and European countries for higher studies. To grow the talent locally and encourage youth to attain higher studies in India, it is essential to improve our universities and bring top university's expertise to our country. the New Education Policy encourages that.

• Less focus on board exams and focus is on over all growth: Do you remember, Most of us use to study only when the exams were there or just to pass board exams? and do you remember our parents and relatives use to care a lot on our marks? have you felt pressurized at that time? now it all has changed, the focus on board exam results have been removed instead, the system is focusing in over all development of a child (360* development). the board exams will be conducted twice a year and it will not be in 10th and 12th class as earlier.

• No clear distinguishes between science commerce and art or humanity: In earlier 10+2 model the students are divided into science, commerce and arts right after 10th class. Some might have had a desire to study other streams subjects. like for example, if a student is in science stream and he might be keen about history, he had no options. well, that has been addressed in NEP-2020, the clear cut distinguish between the streams have been removed instead students will be given freedom to choose any subjects from other stream.

• Multiple entry and exit plans: Imagine you have taken B.E for graduation and after a year you felt its not the field you wanted study and you are interested in fine arts. In today's system you will loose out one year of your education and your one year in engineering college will go waste. but now according to NEP, if you have completed one year successfully you will stand a chance to get credits which you can use it in fine arts. and if you finish 3 years of BE/B.tech you can actually earn equivalent of diploma. also another considerable fact is, for graduation there will be one common entrance exam, just like SAT in US.

• 6% of GDP on education: This effort has been made earlier to spend 6% of GDP, but it never crossed 2%. This policy explicitly mentioned to spend 6% of national GDP towards education.

All good but what is the challenge?

According to me, the NEP-2020 is a landmark decision and it could be a game changer for India to grow as super power in all the fronts including innovation, prosperity and happiness index.  but its all on paper yet. the main challenge lies in implementation of idea which we have. and other major challenge could be setting mentality and training teachers on new curriculum.

there are some other small hurdles which we think as problem but everything else will get settled later once we have the policy implemented.

some others also have concerns of center taking over the education system as earlier the freedom to make changes in education system was given to state as well.

The leader behind NEP- 2020, Dr. K. Kasturirangan:  The leadership(chairman) behind NEP-2020 is Dr. K. Kasturirangan. The former chief of Indian space research organisation (ISRO) is also a Padmavibhushan. click here to know about Dr. K. Kasturirangan.

Dissolution of parliament/assembly (dissolving govt.?): All you need to know

We often get to listen that "government has been dissolved..!!", "state govt. will get dissolved..!!" and  "Lok Sabha will be dissolved" etc. in this piece of content let’s see what actually dissolution of parliament/assembly is? And when it’s done.

Note: This post is for beginners who are learning Indian Polity or want to know when the dissolution is done and how is it done?

First of all, the dissolution of govt./assembly/Lokasabha means terminating membership of all the lower house members of parliament (or assembly in state), according to the need.

Second thing you must know about is that only lower house of any government can be dissolved with after crossing certain limits. Here lower house refers to Lok Sabha in center and that in bicameral state government is Vidana Sabha(or Legislative assembly).

Other fact to know here is that the Rajya Sabha and upper house of bicameral state govt. cannot be dissolved hence it is called permanent house of the parliament and bicameral assembly respectively.

QUICK FACTS..!! Bicameral government: It is basically a government with two separate assemblies or two separate houses, naming lower house and upper house. In Indian parliament we have bicameral system and in our states we generally have unicameral government except in 7 states with bicameral govt. Those are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Telagana.  Names of houses, In center lower house- Lok Sabha upper house- Rajya sabha In state it is lower house- Legislative assembly (Vidana Sabha) upper house- Legislative council (Vidana Parisad) The upper house is generally solid body and is never dissolved. Only 1/3 of house will get retired for every 2 years and refilled.

In below sections let’s see what the situations are and when the lower houses are dissolved.

Lok Sabha dissolution:

First of all, this dissolution can be done only by President with or without cabinet’s suggestions.

The dissolution of Lok Sabha takes place under two main consequences.

Those are,

1)    After completion of tenure of Lok Sabha (ie. 5 years).

point to be known: while the tenure of Lok Sabha can be increased by President during emergency

And

    2) When leader of ruling party loses his majority support

Early dissolution can also be done with the suggestion by cabinets chaired by Prime Minister

President conducts dissolution on the basis of provision given to him in article 85(2) of Indian constitution.

Assembly or lower assembly dissolution:

Similar to Lok Sabha the assembly/Vidhan Sabha can also be dissolved in similar situations,

       1) With end of tenure of the house (i.e. 5 years)

and

       2) Governor has to be satisfied with the instability of the government

President dissolves assembly( on recommendation by governor) on the basis of provision given to him in article 356 and article 365 of Indian constitution.

Article 356 is famously known as presidents rule/state emergency. This in imposed if governance of a state cannot be carried in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.(basically when discrepancy/instability occurs in the state governance)

QUICK FACTS..!! President's rule/state emergency The president’s rule is implacable in any state when there is failure in constitutional machinery in the state (as mentioned in article 356). The failures are generally failure to form majority during government formation or failure to maintain state’s legislature/execution/financial items per the constitutional provisions by the state government. Hence, it is also called as “constitutional emergency” Similar to national emergency after the president’s rule proclamation it has to be approved by both the houses of parliament but unlike national emergency the approval has to be done within two months. To read more about emergency and state emergency CLICK HERE

The assembly can be dissolved on the basis of article 365, if the state government fails to comply the orders or rules or guidelines given by center den president can take hold of the state imposing article 365.

In fact Chief Minister of India also can suggest governor for early dissolution just like Prime minister does to President for dissolution of Lok sabha.

QUICK FACTS..!! S R Bommai Vs Union of India case (1994): S R Bommai was chief minister of Karnataka between August 13, 1988 and April 21, 1989. The government with his leadership was dissolved on grounds of article 356. It was imposed due to lack of majority due to some momentary discrepancy in the coalition. Governor P. Venkatasubbaiah suggested President to call for state emergency and refused to give Bommai an opportunity to test his majority in the Assembly. Following it lower house has been dissolved. Later this imposition was challenged by S R Bommai at Supreme Court. After considering scope of misuse of article 356 after a course of five years historic decision was given on March 11, 1994. Judgment was given by a bench consist of 9 judges. This landmark case made few points clear that the presidents rules proclamation has to be approved by both the houses of parliament and only governor’s opinion about non confidence is not final fact to take decision it has to tested in the assembly,, and of course it has opened a door of challenging the decision if it found to be illogical.

I hope your this post has helped you to clarify facts, If you have any query/suggestion/feedback please comment down below.