Perspective: Five Years of NEP 2020 | 11 July, 2025

0:14 Namaskar viewers. Hello and welcome to Senset TV. I'm Tina Jha. You're watching Perspective. The national education policy 2020 marks its fifth anniversary this month to review its implementation and align higher education with the vision of Vixid Bharat at 2047. A two-day conference of central university vice chancellors was held in Karia Gujarat. Speaking at the inaugural session, Union Education Minister Dhmandra Padhan highlighted key milestones. Total enrollments have risen to 4.46 46 crore, a 30% increase since 20145. Female enrollment has surged by 38% with the gross enrollment ratio for women now surpassing that of men. There's also been a sharp rise in PhD scholars,

1:01 especially among women and greater participation from the SC and ST communities. The minister urged universities to adopt a students first approach focusing on growth, skilling, and innovation. He also outlined the punch sankulp the five resolutions of NEP 2020 as a guiding vision for creating an inclusive and globally competitive higher education ecosystem. So to better understand how the national education policy is reshaping India's education landscape and what it will take to achieve the ambitious target of 50% gross enrollment ratio in higher education in the next 10 years by 2035. Joining me now are two distinguished guests who bring deep insight and

1:46 experience to this critical conversation. Let me welcome on the program Dr. Mrs. Pankage Mittal, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities. Dr. Mittal, thank you very much for your time. Welcome to Sunset TV. I'm also delighted to welcome Professor Sharat Singha, head department of teacher education, NIE, NCERT. Dr. Singha, glad to have you with us on the broadcast as well. Dr. Mel, let me begin the program today with you and first let's uh reflect on the five years of implementation of NEP 2020. So what we know is that this reform envisioned a holistic multidisciplinary higher education system to understand how far have Indian universities come in implementing this vision over the last 5 years.

2:32 Thank you Tina G. The national education policy which came on 29th of July 2020 after 34 years is a very very forward-looking policy and it's a very very democratic policy because it has been formulated after taking into account lacks and lacks of people at various levels not only admissions but even non admissions. So the policy had very many uh changes both at the structural level at the say overall structure of higher education then universities colleges restructuring program level restructuring. So for the first time we have said that we don't want single faculty institutions we want multi-aculty institutions so that the instit the un students get a choice to study whatever they want as per their passion. So slowly slowly most of the universities are becoming multifaculty

3:19 and then there were many universities which were multi-disiplinary already but in true sense if you talk of sense of national education policy multi-disiplinary also gives not only having these departments but also giving choice to the students to choose various subjects. So sometimes the universities have many departments of students don't give a choice to choose from various departments. But now many universities they have uh implemented the national education policy through their academic council, executive council and now the students are getting the choice of choosing a subject of his or her own choice through the various subjects available in that university. So multi-disiplinarity is happening entry and exit the policy talks about multiple entry and multiple exit. So that after a student one year student gets uh uh

4:06 certificate after two years they get a diploma after three years or four years they get a degree or degree with honors or research that is also implemented by most of the universities 4-year degree program has been implemented by most of the universities. So many aspects of national education policy are being being implemented but they are being implemented slowly. I mean national education policy itself had many different timelines for various recommendations to take shape. So on that line if we talk a lot of implementation has already happened. Absolutely. We'll talk about how we can further align this reformative measure as well as the education system at large to the vixid bharat goal as well. How we can achieve the short-term goal of increasing the g by 50% in the next 10

4:52 years. We'll bring that all uh in the conversation in due course of the program. Let me go across to Dr. Singha get her perspective on how the NP uh put strong emphasis on foundational literacy to understand from you Dr. SHA how is the teacher training ecosystem supporting this goal envisioned under the NP 2020 and how much progress have we made by far with this uh very forwardlooking policy a lot of reforms are happening in the field of school education also and as professor Mittel also point out pointed out in the higher education landscape changes are happening and of course the changes the policy dissemination has been the done in the length and breadth

5:39 of the country. Most of the corners of the country are aware of the progressive nature of the policy also and of course when this implementation as you ask about there are lot of work which have been done in uh in the in the field of uh bringing out national curriculum frameworks. uh post NEP 2020 a document named Sarthuk had come up which had the implementation guidelines and the tasks were very nicely depicted in that satak document and most of the uh actions have been taken tasks are in process the national curriculum framework foundation state has been uh for the foundation state has been launched national curriculum framework

6:25 for secondary education is in place national curriculum um framework for teacher education is about to come and even the national curriculum framework for adult education that is also that is also about to come and the we have a program for it is now renamed the adult literacy renamed as now this this is a uh after a major consultation process which has been held up to district level up to the ground level and NCF for foundational state has come up as a historic achievement because it it hops on it focuses on improving foundation literacy and numeracy and NCERT has developed guidelines under Newton Bharat

7:11 that was launched on July 5, 2021 to ensure that every child in the country necessarily attains foundation literacy and numeracy by the end of grade 3 by 2026 and 27. a very ambitious program called Vidya Praves. Uh a three month play-based school preparation program for grade 1 children as per NEP 2020 recommendation has been developed and this is to bring in the children. It helps the teachers to ensure that all the children are exposed to a warm and welcoming environment when they enter grade one. Then foundation literacy study NCET has also conducted various foundational literacy studies first ever large scale foundational literacy study

7:57 in March 22 covering approximately 86,000 grade three students from across 10,000 schools and in 20 languages and we have also brought out primers like multilingualism is a very much emphasized aspect. So the uh early for the early years the education has to be in the mother tongue. So NCERTT has brought out primers also in more than 100 uh languages for the uh early early school students. So that is a progress that is done right from the foundation state. uh national curriculum framework for secondary uh school education has been brought out and now NCERT is in the process of aligning getting bringing out

8:43 the books for school education aligning with the national policy national education policy initiatives and a very futuristic vision that has been envisaged in the national education policy 2020. Well that was a comprehensive list Dr. Singha. Thank you for making us aware about some of these programs that have led to the kind of transformation the union minister was speaking about at the VC's conference in Gujarat. But you mentioned how the NP emphasizes on mother tongue local language instruction in early education something that's hallmark of the NP 2020 but uh uh help us and our viewers understand how the teachers specifically are being prepared for multilingual classrooms. What challenges are also emerging because

9:29 this this became a a bone of contention but the challenges at the same time how are they adapting towards effective implementation of this particular policy. Basically uh the first effort which has been made in that direction is to make available the literature in various languages because the availability of literature in fact one big hurdle towards multilingualism is nonavvailability of literature in regional languages. So this is being done at a this is being done on a war footing. Uh uh resources curricular resources and textual material are being translated into regional languages by the states and even the NCERTT has taken up a lead in this. So this availability

10:15 of material ensures the teacher also to address the issues in regional language that is number one. Number two, the uh in the early years the uh students they learn better and if they are providing we are we are in our teacher uh uh preparation programs and also in capacity building programs we are promoting the teachers to give a flexibility in understanding the languages of the locals and promoting like it's not reprimanding them and saying them he you speak you have to speak in English or Hindi or any other language. It is promoted even and the programs like a bharat, shrish bharat uh in which many uh languages we there are

11:03 uh various initiatives like children at schools they speak uh uh 10 or 15 sentences workable sentences in other language and they they make peers they learn each other they learn each other's language. So that is uh that is uh there are ma major initiatives which are being taken up at the school levels also and even in the teacher when the policy emphasizes on multilingualism so everybody has lot of love for his or her language. So when that respect goes for other language too that gives a better and democratic picture in the classroom I would say and more understanding and respecting of other cultures also. Okay. Okay. Uh Dr. ML, I'll come back to

11:49 you uh and and uh touch upon one of the NEP's uh most ambitious goals, which is to increase the gross enrollment ratio in higher education. Uh we we heard from the minister about the transformation and about the results that uh uh we we have seen in the last 10 years. He emphasized on how the total student enrollment has gone up 30% since 20145 to touch 4.46 cr rupees. And uh what's heartening to note is that female enrollment particularly has grown by 38%. Now our ambition is to take G up to 50% by 2035. So are we on track? Uh if not, what structural reforms may be needed to get there? And I ask you this because you're part of the system, you

12:35 understand the challenges, but at the same time you also understand the policy approaches that will perhaps need to be accelerated to help us realize that short-term goal. Thank you. Thank you, Tina G. As you know that the gross enrollment ratio right now is around 28.6. We want to reach 50 by 2035, which is a 10-year goal. Not very easy, but we are pushing very hard to achieve that goal. First thing, we are very happy that the gross enrollment ratio of women is higher than the men. Yes rise only by 2% but that too is a significant thing that by 2% we are higher in for girls rather than for males and then there are number of ways in which the gross enrollment ratio is uh I mean we are the recommendations of

13:22 the NB are being implemented gross enrollment ratio in multiple ways one more universities and colleges more private universities and colleges having a lot of open education because we cannot teach everybody in physical physical brick and water structures we can be using the online education. So many online education providers are now there. Earlier they were only open universities but now as per the national education policy the regular universities are giving an option given an option that they can also teach through the online mode online programs are given validity. Earlier it was not there. So online plus traditional method both will be there and it will increase the gross enrollment ratio. And second thing when we talk of gross enrollment ratio we talk of the ratio between the

14:09 people who are enrolled in students who are enrolled in higher education divide by the total number of uh persons in the age group of 18 to 23. But out of that how many are eligible to get admission in higher education only the ones who are pass 12th class. So if you see eligible enrollment ratio that means if the uh eligible population is counted in the relevant age group of 18 to 23 then already our enrollment eligible enrollment ratio is around 67% much beyond 50%. So that means if we have more eligible population with us then we will be sort of just very swiftly walking towards the goal of 50%. That means the problem is more at the school education. The problem is more at the level of if uh pass outs in the terms of number of students who are

14:55 passing out of 12th class. So if we have more 12th class outside the transition rate is around 80%. Many students are going to higher education and now we have also integrated skill education with the higher education. So what I feel is achieving that goal will not be difficult but more emphasis has to be given on skill education and our issue will be accommodating higher education enroll accommodating more students in higher education rather than creating an expansion that means accommodating the expansion expansion will automatically happen because of surf shikaban because of right to education there are many ways in which school education is being promoted and the number of dropouts are being decreased. So as soon as that happens the higher education will ultimately increase on its own. We don't even have to do extra efforts. We just have to accommodate expansion. So I

15:41 don't think that there will be any difficulty and we'll be achieving the 50%. Because most of the developed countries are having a ratio of something like 60 67 68 70%. And ours also er is 67%. Although the G is 28%. So the gap is a very big gap and if we reduce that gap through promotion of school education, higher education will automatically get a lot of students and the GR will not be a distant dream. It will be very very easy to achieve. So hopefully the discussions and the deliberations that have taken place uh at the VC's conference will look into this aspect as to how to accelerate and how to deise ways to uh realize this goal of enhancing the GR to 50% in the next 10 years. uh you spoke about uh the

16:29 use of technology and online earn learning as well uh Dr. Mittel. So uh for better understanding of our viewers talk to us about how digital transformation across the higher education institutions in India has taken shape especially uh since the implementation of NEP 2020 and uh to realize or to align these higher education institutions to our 2047 goal. uh how prepared are we for large scale implementation of say hybrid learning models? So national education policy itself talks about technological integration with the higher education for the first time a separate forum called national education technology forum has been created. Professor Anit Sbddha is heading that forum and in that forum we

17:16 are think we are talking of the ways in which technology can be integrated with higher education. We already have SWAM which is India MOU's platform which runs curriculum based programs for the students. So there are courses MOUS courses which the students can take and 40% of the courses in a regular program can also be taken through the SAM platform. That means integrating the uh conventional education and the online education. In a regular education program also 40% can be done from online mode. There are fully online programs in which 100% education is provided through online platforms. There are many platforms which are available for that. Many universities who are doing it and doing it much more efficiently and I think the way we are teaching. So now with the advent of technology especially AI the way we are teaching is totally

18:02 changing. Earlier we were using a simple lecture method of teaching now we are using a personalized learning approach in which each student is taught at his or her own level. That means the caliber of each student is seen and each student is taught at her or her own level by using the AI techniques. So if we are doing capacity building of the stu teachers on using how to how to use the technology as well as AI at AIOU where I am coming from we have established something like 80 centers all over the country. The primary objective of those centers called AADC's academic and administrative development centers. The primary objective of those centers is to teach the teachers do the capacity building of teachers on how to use technology for teaching, learning, research and governance. So that is something very important. So technology

18:48 is being used for teaching pedagogy. It is being used in curriculum. It is being used in form of learning means online education or conventional education or hybrid education. So technology is a very big uh sort of breakthrough which is coming coming up which will help us in achieving g expansion quality because in remote areas we cannot have quality teachers every year. So through technology the best teachers can go to even remote areas even rural areas even backward areas. So quality education for all is now the slogan not education for all quality education for all and this is now very easily possible using the technology certainly because we do not want that while we enhance access we compromise on quality that is something that we have to also maintain uh a question related

19:35 to keeping pace with the rapid advancements in technology Dr. SHA I'll bring you in here and get your perspective because alongside technological development and uh the rapid access to technological devices continuous professional development for teachers is also a critical pillar because you have to keep pace with the changing time the changing technology so talk to us about the mechanisms that are in place to ensure that the inservice teachers keep pace with NEP aligned expectations on uh both the technological aspect as well as the teachers keeping pace with the technological aspect. Uh thank you Tina G. Uh continuous professional development

20:22 has been uh something which has been emphasized in the policy and 50 hours of mandatory uh uh inservice training or a continuous professional development for every teacher every year has been mandated in the policy. And this also becomes important that because the huge task force of the teacher in order to bring in the uh NEP into practice, we have brought up that uh the policy uh brought up the integrated teacher education program that is the ITE which is being piloted at across 62 institutions including the IITs, NITs, I uh and and various state and central universities apart from various institution also. As professor Mittell

21:08 also pointed out that now the focus is more on multidisiplinarity. So now in order to update the existing teacher force to the align to align itself with the national education policy continuous professional development is something which is very very much needed and for continuous professional development lot of initiatives have been taken up taken place. technology has come up as a big game game changer. It has launched uh and around 42 lakh teachers have completed Nishta approximately 42 lakhs online and offline mode for Nishta elementary level had come up. Now uh at

21:53 that time it was named as elementary then for secondary level and uh and then the nishta koshel has also been launched by honorable minister for vocational education. There are various types of nishta which we had uh the ministry of education had launched and it was uh part of mega training program for the teachers largest I would say largest in the world and it it included almost 18 modules with guidelines primers training package and a QR coded econtent now this is also this nishta program you'll be happy to know that it's being conducted in more than 11 languages that include Bangla bod English, Gujarati, Hindi, Canada, Odia, Punjabi, Telugu and Udu. Now, Nishta for secondary school

22:40 teachers and in the Nishta for foundation literacy and numeracy was also launched and then in this this is a uh there is a mechanism of certifying the teachers also in uh through the online NISTA currently Nishta for school administrators nishta koshel and I I in the meanwhile I'll go back to Dr. Mittel and uh uh because now the time is running out and I'll have to also talk to her about the vision 2047 that's been discussed at length at the uh VC's conference in Gujarat and that's something which will uh propel us towards our longerterm goal of becoming a vixid bharat by 2047. So Dr. ML looking ahead what should be uh the top three priorities for Indian higher

23:25 education institutions in the next decade which will take us closer to our 2047 vision. So in one line if I can say it is that India should be a global destination for affordable quality education. So affordable quality education has many terms. Affordability that is something very very major because whenever students go abroad it is not affordable but when students come to India it is affordable. Quality again is very important because unless the students get quality education they will not come to us and our students will not go out. So we want as a vixit bha 2047 that India should be a destination global destination for quality higher education whether it is for students Indian students or it is for foreign students.

24:11 So everybody should look India as a destination which is providing quality education and which is affordable. So that is something very very important for us and if we can achieve that if we can achieve that the India will be a developed nation then more and more uh students will come to India right now we have something like 49,000 foreign students in India we want to increase it to much much more population because we have 4.2 2 cr students in India even 1% is there it should be four lakh foreign students in India so we have to increase it much more and then we have fix the supernium ready seats at 15% so 15% is a much larger number so even 1% if we are able to achieve a 24/7 that will be very

24:56 good that we are having many many foreign students and India is viewed as a destination preferred destination for quality education because it provides quality education at a lower cost than say west or US or these countries. Certainly that's an important point. So while we've done a lot in the last 5 years and especially the NP 2020 has envisioned and uh put us on a path where we are running quite fast on multiple fronts uh something that Dr. Mittell spoke about which is internationalization of our education system also digital learning is central to NEP multiddisciplinary education is another critical pillar of this policy but amidst all this Dr. Sha I I would like one closing comment from you on uh how are we ensuring that students remain

25:43 at the heart of all this transformation. This is one statement that we've heard often uh the prime minister say that uh despite the transformation we have to ensure that the system keeps students at the center of it all and this was reiterated by the union education minister as well uh at the VC's conference that despite the transformation that has happened despite the ambitious goals that we've set for 2035 and for 2047 we have to shape uh an an education ecosystem that uh keeps the vision the aspirations of the students at the center of it all. Dr. Yeah, the teacher the students actually whatever the books have been brought out

26:29 for the children the books have been the v various initiatives that the policy in in visages more stress on experiential learning toy based pedagogy sports based pedagogy which creates a lot of joy and interest integration of uh vocational education right from start standard sixth onwards bagless days so many initiatives which have which makes to uh the school a totally vibrant place to learn and the children feel welcomed. The PMC school initiative which has been launched recently 14,500 schools are under have to come under the PMG scale which are state-of-art and also in showcasing the NEP 2020 implementation.

27:15 I think lot of steps plus digital integration which is taking place uh PME with their channels for the children to study there's so much for the children in today's times post policy the children are the center of all the reforms studententric uh classrooms are there studententric books are there studententric pedagogy is being taught for in all the continuous professional development programs we talking of student centeredness to make child at the center of all the reforms to make the child happy to make the learning joyful. It is what exactly we are constantly aiming for. All the reforms, all the paradigm shift aims at bettering

28:02 the student uh uh learning and preparing the student for all the futuristic skills and competencies which we think would be more useful in the coming times in the changing landscape of education. Absolutely. So the journey has begun with a promise. The NP 2020 has brought brought about quiet but significant transformation transformation in the education system. But going forth if you have to realize the vision 2047 what's what may be required is sustained commitment at all levels greater collaboration uh only then we can reach the desired goals. Uh with that we'll have to wrap up the conversation. Thank you Dr. Mittell Dr. Sha for joining us with your insights uh uh and for your with your valuable time as well. And to

28:47 you viewers thank you very much for your time. That's it from us on this edition of Perspective. To watch more programs of Sunset TV, subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to like and share them.