Prabin Kumar Padhy"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. " — Nelson MandelaOver the years, since the development of civilization, the education system has gone through changes and transformations based on circumstantial plus need-of-the-hour requirements. Continuous improvements in education not only equip a country's knowledge base but also keep its citizens ready for all challenges.
The education system in India dates back to ancient times where children were taught in Gurukuls. The Guru used to teach as per the interest of the child, subjects varying from Sanskrit, the holy scriptures and from Mathematics to Metaphysics. Currently in the 21st Century, the world is undergoing rapid changes in the knowledge landscape both scientific and technological advancements with the rise of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
While India on the global front adheres to the SDG4 in the year 2015, it ambitiously aims to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" by 2030. There is a lot of brainstorming, exercises, calculations worked out to reconfigure the entire education system. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) was framed and rolled out in July 29, 2020 to achieve the SDG4 target.
Now, besides the challenges of rapid scientific & technological advancements, to quote NEP 2020, "With climate change, increasing pollution, and depleting natural resources, there will be a sizeable shift in how we meet the world's energy, water, food, and sanitation needs, again resulting in the need for new skilled labour, particularly in biology, physics, chemistry, agriculture, climate science, and social science. The growing emergence of epidemics and pandemics will also call for collaborative research in infectious disease management and development of vaccines and the resultant social issues heightens the need for multidisciplinary learning. " The curriculum must include basic arts, crafts, humanities, games, sports and fitness, languages, literature, culture, and values, in addition to science and mathematics, to develop all aspects and capabilities of learners; and make education more well-rounded, useful, and fulfilling to the learner.
Education must build character, enable learners to be ethical, rational, compassionate, and caring, while at the same time prepare them for gainful, fulfilling employment. The NEP 2020 even renamed the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) as the Ministry of Education in a bid to bring the focus back on education and learning. Although there are numerous improvements and programmes to facilitate the NEP to be implemented across the country to bring back the holistic development of a child through education and development, it also isn't binding on the states to implement as both Central and State governments can make their own laws on education.
The proposed reforms can only be implemented if both the governments work collaboratively. Critical Challenges for NEP 2020 in North East India: Now if we consider the Northeastern states of India, comprising of eight States: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura, the Education in Northeast India (NEI) is quite different from rest of India due to many reasons such as geographical distinction, cultural diversity, religious pluralism, socio-cultural heterogeneity and linguistic varieties. Even though the multiplicity of life and nature in the North-East is a boon, it has been neglected over the past 60+ years and this has led to alienation from rest of India and created a socio-cultural gap.
There are many critics who feel that the present National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) could be another fruitless deal that does not have any bearing on NEI development if it is not implemented with practical and strategic commitments as it is one of the most heterogeneous sites in geographical area and socio-cultural diversity. The eight Northeastern States are bordered with five neighbouring countries: Bangladesh in the south, Bhutan and China in the North, Myanmar in the East, and Nepal in the northwest. Further, the population is racially dominated by Mongoloid, and the remaining are Caucasoid, Australoid and Negroid.
The education system is little different from rest of India in terms of the academic session, curriculum, structure, teaching-learning method, language aspects, practical know-how, social behaviours, and psychological features. Unlike the CBSE or ICSE boards which follow the April-March academic year, most NEI States follow the January-December academic session. Add to the above, English and local languages are the primary languages in the teaching- learning process.
For instance, English and Liangmai are utilized among the Liangmai tribe, English and Garo among the Garo tribe, English and Manipuri among the Meiteis, and so on. Then there is the issue of rural-urban gap which is one of the biggest challenges for NEP. The urban population divide between the haves and the have-nots is another issue that needs to be seriously addressed.
The deprivation of educational services and related resources such as the Internet, electricity, newspapers, television, public library, education platforms, compounded by meagre incomes of the rural population and urban daily wage earners, create a colossal divide in society. While many in North-East feel that the NEP 2020 that aims to make higher education multidisciplinary, holistic or all-inclusive is a welcome reform as the policy seeks to achieve a 100 percentage Gross Enrolment Ratio in school education by 2030 and the emphasis on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as the foundation of learning, but they are sceptical of its proper and extensive implementation in the North Eastern States of India. Multilingualism is another big hurdle which they fear, as there are multi-home languages in a single classroom.
For example, in Tamei, Manipur, there are at least three to four native languages (mother tongues) such as Liangmai, Rongmei, Zeme, Manipuri and Hindi are taught in schools among the students in a single classroom, and hence the idea of "home language/mother-tongue" as the "medium of instruction" becomes a hurdle. Challenges accepted: Making Inroads: Over the past 7-8 years, the Modi Government has seriously focused on the development of North-East India. With continuous improvements, new schemes, infrastructure projects including construction of roads, mobile towers, schools & hospitals along with stressing on local handicrafts skill development of women and youth, the Modi Government and the 'Double Engine' State Governments of the North East have been successful in improving the way of life by lessening the civil disputes, extremism and lawlessness prevailing earlier.
The Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, upon whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi has bestowed upon the daunting task of NEP 2020 implementation, has been making lot of trips to the Northeastern States to understand the issues and propagate the NEP 2020 and its all-inclusive methods to improve the education system in the region. During his address at the inauguration ceremony of the North-East Education Conclave 2021 in Guwahati, Pradhan had said that "all the Northeastern States together inculcate as many as 180 languages. We want Assam to become a laboratory for a caste, tribe, language- based education system.
The Government of India will prioritize every resource needed for this. " During his recent visit to attend the XXVII Convocation of the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Meghalaya, the Education Minister stressed the importance of NEP 2020 as a transformative pathway for all of us in creating global citizens. With the Meghalaya Government focused on early childhood care and education in the State in line with the NEP 2020, the Union Education Minister appreciated the move.
During the launching of North East Research Conclave (NERC) 2022 at lIT Guwahati in May, 2022, the Minister was confident that the conclave will enhance the ties between industry, academics, and policymakers, as well as re-energize the research, start-up, and entrepreneurial ecosystems in the resource-rich Northeastern States and the country. In the words of Pradhan, "No Indian language is less than the other languages used in the country. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 focuses on universalization of early childhood care and education and also emphasizes on learning in all Indian languages.
Under the new policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mandated that all languages are national languages. Therefore, Garo, Khasi, Jaintia (local languages in Meghalaya) are national languages. " Summary: While there are manifold challenges in implementing the National Education Policy in the North-East that has 180 languages, the steps are taken in this regard are impressive with good and continuous State and Central coordination.
With 'Double Engine' Governments all across the NEI region, there is a better chance of proper implementation of NEP 2020 there. Likewise, the constant support from Central Government in improving the infrastructure that fuels the educational and skill development, including the fund flow in the Budget, is a welcome move to facilitate the NEP implementation in the Northeastern region of India. While the Narendra Modi Government has set a target of 2040 to accomplish implementation of the entire Policy, it is no doubt a march in the right direction.
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