The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) in the Government of India has recently released the 2020 version of National Education Policy (NEP) [1]. As many experts have pointed out [2,3], this is one of the best reforms in the education sector and is expected to be a game-changer. I read the full 66-page report and I highly recommend reading it. This reform puts the power back in the hands of the students (and their parents), who can decide the courses/majors that they choose to pursue and pause/restart the education as per their personal/family needs. Rather than getting lost in the Labyrinth of our education system, students can rather focus on the “learning” and develop a solid foundation for the future they aspire.
In regards to the “universal access to education” aspect of this policy, I have a suggestion to make. We should make the video lectures and related educational content at all levels of education completely free and open to all. Think of an EdX or Khan Academy of sorts, where the video lectures for each subject at each grade level are available for streaming/download to anyone with a simple computer device (like a smartphone) and internet access. To start with, the video lectures could simply be a class recording from an institute like Kendriya Vidyalaya and perhaps enhanced in the future with animation, etc. The recording can be in any Indic language and published under an appropriate creative-commons license, whereby the state board or even a linguistic group can translate/transliterate the videos in their local language/dialect and republish the videos citing the original source. Thanks to the IT revolution over the last few decades, we have all the pieces of the solution ready and we just need to piece it together. Such a system would truly democratize our education system, setting high standards for the teaching and curriculum, and enable new education models, including home-schooling and self-learning. Let me share a few examples.
Think about an auto-rickshaw driver making a living in an urban city like Mumbai, away from his hometown in North India, who had to leave his high-school education halfway to start making a living for the family. He is motivated enough to finish his high-school, but enrolling in a full-time school is too cumbersome. Fortunately, he can watch the lectures on his smartphone while waiting for rides in the auto stand, practice the material with a local tutor and appear for exams every few months in a local school/exam center to clear the milestones and thus earn his diploma, enabling access to college education, and thus helping him move up the employment ladder. Thus high-quality video content enables such self-learners to learn at their own pace at their own time.
Let’s consider a scenario of a group of families in a Bengaluru, deeply associated with the spiritual organization (like AoL) or a Matha (monastery in the Indic system), which is a tremendous part of their kids learning. However, their kids are enrolled in state/centerboard affiliated schools as well, leading to duplication of efforts and activities. Such families would love to home-school their kids so that their learning is centered around their religious/spiritual schools, while still keeping pace with the regular state/centerboard education to have a pathway open for a college education. This group of families creates a home-schooling system, where parents take turns teaching different subjects. They complement the learning with field-trips and such activities. The freely available high-quality education content can tremendously aid their education.
Given the flexibility and openness of the NEP, such possibilities are endless. Logistics wise, it will be great if the government encourages or rather make it mandatory to the internet operators to carry traffic to such content for free, perhaps in exchange for tax rebates, etc. I am sure the telecom industry will come up with novel business models and innovation to make this happen.
References
[1] National Education Policy 2020, Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), Government of India – Link
[2] Dr. Aishwarya S, (Twitter thread), Link
[3] Dr. Pankaj Jalote, “The New Education Policy (NEP) has Great Suggestions for Higher Education”, Link