Most educational institutions, the colleges and varsities are still struggling to implement NEP-2020 proposed 4 years ago while some States have squarely rejected it stating that they will have their own Sate Education Policy (SEP). In all fairness, the universities should have seized this opportunity immediately by incorporating all needed and utilitarian changes keeping the essence of the policy intact, instead of getting stuck with trivial bottlenecks, and defer its implementation indefinitely.
The central philosophy of the new policy is restructuring the curriculums and the pattern of education. By the way, the term ‘curriculum’ broadly refers to an entire academic program (courses and activities). Whereas, the term ‘syllabus’ refers to unitized content of a paper. Here, I am highlighting some ‘crucial nuances’ which need serious consideration while developing curriculums and restructuring education making it apt for overcoming heaps of contemporary challenges.
First and foremost, it is vital to grasp the urgency of revamping the country’s education programs and also make them successful. My arguments are as follows. Firstly, the current education programs stand dented with ‘outdated curriculums, disintegration of disciplines, inadequate faculty and infrastructure, irrelevant research output, poor funding, lack of vision, and poor leadership’ of educational institutions. Secondly, technology driven disruptions in jobs and obsolescence of people and things have become serious challenges in unearthing new careers and trades. Thirdly, lackluster teaching-learning-assessment processes and governance have resulted in the erosion of credibility of credentials of the degree awarding institutions with few exceptions. Fourthly, following globalization and digital revolution people’s expectations have also transformed; they now aspire for global citizenship and hence, global standards of education.
Therefore, mere tinkering of existing programs will be of no avail. India needs holistically metamorphosed curriculums. This calls for a good measure of disruption of the existing practices to facilitate new thinking and pave way for new integrated novel courses (i.e. integration of disintegrated and complementary courses). In addition, the new components of education include inculcation of creative and critical thinking, problem solving, working in teams, skill development, making innovation a habit, entrepreneurship etc. Self-learning (Svadhya) needs stress as advocated in Taittria Upanishad.
Sadly, the education programs in the face of rapidly changing global scenario have unwittingly remained anachronistic while economy, technologies, business and industries, and cultures have changed over the years resulting in a mismatch of the former with the latter. Need of the hour is disruption of the existing education models. The curriculums must now focus on the context of the 21st century milieu, stakeholders’ feedbacks and aspirations of Gen-Z and Gen-alpha population. Additionally, they should help inculcate the importance of values, ethics, human rights, and decolonization of minds. Precisely, context must impact the content i.e. the curriculums and the syllabi’s. Furthermore, delivery mechanisms must be clearly visualized as well as defined. The disruptive features of education are: customizing learning, committing to early learning, reinforcing digital skills, encouraging critical thinking, creative thinking, decision making, integrating AI and so on with an emphasis on the practice over theory, learning multiple disciplines, digital innovations, closer links with the job market, and making competitiveness a priority.
Ideally, the educational institutions, now more than ever, must build their own networks of communities (learners, alumni, entrepreneurs and industries etc.) whose feedbacks help in up-grading the programs as per the perceived contemporary needs. Evolving novel courses through integration of borderless areas with scope for learning multiple disciplines is very much needed. Likewise, the curriculums must provide for self-up-gradation with new developments in the field, and feedbacks from stakeholders. Academic flexibilities like: migration across streams, liberal option of subject combinations, open electives, add-on courses, and value added courses will play a significant role in refurbishing education scenario. Further, mandatory courses on ‘liberal arts’ such as ‘international economy’, ‘constitutional democracies’, ‘ethics and human rights’, ‘contemporary history’, ‘comparative literature’ ‘ancient scriptures’ to an extent of 15-25 percent of total teaching hours can help development of multifaceted personality. In the face of increasing civilization, modernization and fast shrinkage of the world in to a global village, a multifaceted knowledge is very much needed.
Evidently, new paradigms require reorientation of teachers through short-term intensive workshops on the teaching-learning and assessment pedagogies (e.g. Programs for International Student Assessment (PISA) and ‘International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’ practiced globally, and also standardization of the parameters of continuous assessment (CA) and, outcome based assessment (OBE) etc. Opting for global pedagogies in some streams of education may necessitate modular lecture halls and laboratories and new infrastructure. Curriculums must where relevant, specify and recommend training workshops for teachers, and needed facilities for a given course of study, especially the novel or new course(s) introduced.
Further, to accomplish the set objectives and desired outcomes, educational instituions primarily need competent and motivated faculty and a liberal support from the prevailing governments. In any new venture competency and leadership qualities of the head of the institution matter colossally. Unarguably, there is a demanding need for enhancing credibility of credentials awarded by the institutions. Therefore, both vision (leadership) and execution (governance) are equally important. I am reminded of quote of Thomas Alva Edison, who said “Vision without execution is hallucination”. In closing: will India remain hallucinating or seriously engage in transforming education to meet the ongoing ruthless challenges?
The author is a former Founder Director of Karnataka State Higher Education Academy, and Vice Chancellor of Karnatak University, Dharwad. saidapur@gmail.com
