New Education Policy- Ray of Hope?

The New Education Policy has recently been in the center of attention in our country today. This policy has been created after 34 years. For some, this is the annihilation of the last 34 years of education fragmentation or just another brick in the wall.

Now I would like to provide an analysis of this. (Before reading any further, please note, taking in consideration of the attention span of our readers, this analysis is going to be in series, and not a single piece, hence, this article is a prologue, tune in for further articles )

The policy asks for regional language/mother-tongue to be used as the medium of instruction till class 5. And then they can either drop or take English in middle school.

Why such sudden glorification of regional languages? Hindi imposition and disdain accept political failure.

Why and how?

Hindi is not the only regional language that exists. But, certainly, the most well known. Hence, Hindi shall be the most preferred once, assuming the most default familiarity for any language other than English is Hindi, for a teacher and a student.

Mother tongue isn’t Hindi by default. Perhaps, imposing once mother tongue, whether socially familiar or not, is morally incorrect and unfair , for a diverse democracy.

Thirdly, there have been more efforts to promote the language Sanskrit particularly than any other language (English is an exception here). Thus, balancing between understanding of language skills and conceptual knowledge would be difficult. Perhaps, this risk is ferocious.

Fourth point, Sanskrit should be promoted by the logic of preserving ancient languages, then Pali, Prakrit too should be promoted.
Historically, Sanskrit is prominent among the Brahmins, and the latter was prominent with the lower classes.
Ignoring the relevance and adaptability of the other languages and highlighting Sanskrit being aware of its history is instead an ignorance, and is of casteist nature too.
Pali Prakrit, etc; have less archaeological remains as compared to Sanskrit. Hence, restoring Sanskrit isn’t an immediate need.

Fifth point, if students learn everything in their regional language, then move to different states will not be possible by their parents as kids would have to learn a new language too. Then Hindi will come to rescue.

Sixth point, the policy wants academics to be established for each of the eight languages. The academics of Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, and Sindhi will be created by the center and others by the respective state government
Sounds great, right? But let us not forget the jurisdiction of the Centre lies throughout, and jurisdiction of the state lies within itself. So basically an academy of the four above mentioned languages can be created in say WB, TN or Maharashtra but Bengali, Tamil or Marathi academies are not allowed in the Hindi heartland, why should Bengali language which has given us our national song and national anthem not have academies outside WB, why should Tamil which is older than Sanskrit and Marathi which is older than Hindi not have their academies in the North? Why should North not have academies other than Hindi, Sanskrit, and Urdu? Besides, there are many states which state language is none of the 22, Mizo, for example, is the language of Mizoram so that either Mizoram will be compromised of a quality language institution or it will have either of the three and not their mother tongue?

7th point: India has six classical languages, besides Sanskrit, we have Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, and Sanskrit, why should the others be optional taught in online mode? Besides, why is it mandatory for the South to read a completely different language when theirs is the oldest? Why should we, say the students in Bengal, in that case, be deprived form learning a new language, say Tamil at school, and be made to read the same old that we have been? The answer is simple, Sanskrit is the language that the Sangh has always used to push forward their divisive communal narrative, the way they are making people of India look down upon the Dravidian languages as something inferior and insulting Sanskrit for their petty narrative is shameful.

8th point, The policy says that teachers must be grounded to Indian values, languages, knowledge, ethos, and traditions
Some very good worda, but the question is in which part of India did the teachers not follow traditions? What exactly is Indian tradition btw?
The culture of Bengal and Gujarat are not the same, Kashmir and Tamil Nadu are not the same, UP and NE are not the same, so how can Indian tradition be defined? There is no answer to that, but what is clear is the fact that this is a move made to establish what Sangh believes to be the Indian culture.

Now let me provide you some examples to explain this further,

Example 1:
Suppose a person is living in Kerala and has a kid who learns in Malayalam, i.e., a kid learns Science, Maths and Social Science in Malayalam. When the kid is in say 4th or 5th, she moves to Maharashtra for work. Now the mother takes the kid along; kid will have to continue his/her education in Marathi, a new language. I’d be separated from my family if she chooses to work.
How is this going to affect migration and employment within the country? Prospects of employment or employability of the kid? Movement of people was possible because schools taught in English. Now we need an alternative language that can be used across the nation, enter Hindi.

Example 2:
A kid has done his primary schooling in Bengal. His father does a transferable job. He is transferred to Gujarat when he is in class 5. The kid, too, goes along. Now he his command in English is anyway not strong because that wasn’t the medium of instruction till his standard. Moreover, for a Bengali to understand Hindi would be easy but certainly not Gujarati. That will be problem 1. Problem 2 starts, when he will reach 6, and given the option to either drop or choose English. Here in this situation, what will he do? If he drops his communication skills, which were any way of having being associated with a very different community, which increases more. But, he can’t take up English too. Why? Because he didn’t do it for the rest of seven years. Hence, taking it up would be a risk for his marks.

Example 3:
Suppose a person is Tamil but raised up in Assam. Married a Kashmiri lady who is raised up in Orissa. Had kids, shifted to Bengal. Kids are ready for school now. Kindly enlighten what is the mother tongue here of the kid?
Moreover, this, too, proves that the regional language is not necessarily the mother tongue. So the logic of emotional touch given by the government gets repudiated. Another thing, how will the parents teach the kid Bengali while having not much experience in it?

Example 4:
Since MPhil is discontinued. People teaching this subject will lose their jobs. And won’t find any other. Because teachers teaching, this has an academic background in philosophy only. Hence, the options for employment in the corporate world get cast-off.
Moreover, what do you think the age will be when one gets terminated from this profession, assuming he is a professor teaching MPhil for ten years. More job options get away because of age reasons. The pre-existing unemployment problem adds another disadvantage.

Example 5:
Students who have already been studying for MPhil will have more challenges ahead of them now. Their hard works get wasted, as this is no longer going to land them a good job. Now don’t say to me just because the subject has got discontinued, its significance won’t get ceased. It will, because then his degree won’t have any legal acknowledgment. His efforts, hard work, and even expenses will get wasted.

Example 6:
A student is passionate about philosophy. He took up philosophy for BA and PG and then MPhil. His education is over. Now he is looking for jobs. What job is he going to get? Can’t take up teaching because the subject is ceased. The corporate world will reject for not having academic experience with the business. The guy who could have done a lot in life with an educational qualification like this is now confused as to where to look for a job.

(The discontinuation of a subject like MPhil helps in propagating the preexisting disdain towards critical thinking and intellect and is even an act of revenge for political refutations, done by men of intellect, like writers and students)

Also, this raises another question, NEP is proposing that we build a new generation who learns science, maths, and history in their regional languages instead of English, does that mean every kid needs to be in their own state and cannot move to another state before completing their education?

Hindi will be made the primary medium of education and communication, the common link across the nation. This is nothing but a move to make Hindi the national language and execute One Nation One Language policy of BJP. Do not even think it’s okay because English will be taught as a language. The objective is so very different, and the agenda is already set.

It’s clear, therefore, that this is nothing but a plan of imposing Hindi and self – propagated Hindutva culture upon the present and next generation. The glorification is purely for electoral gratification. There was a repercussion for imposing Hindi and hence this sudden change. Get the voters by hook & crook.
Most importantly, language should be a choice, and no social constructs should be created for it.
Creating such is denying liberty!!

Apparently, a global leader doesn’t want to promote a global language because he can’t pronounce ‘global.’

Corporatization of Education
The policy states that HEIs will have full autonomy, academic, administrative, and FINANCIAL with no external interference in the HEIs, and the private HEIs will be empowered to set the fees of the programmes.
Independently within a limit, with 20% getting freeship and 30% through additional scholarship.
Now the point is financial autonomy will allow the private universities to charge students in their own terms, 50% of the students who will be paying the abnormally high fees, will have no say even if the institutes loot them according to this norms, besides the amount of scholarship to be offered to the 30% is not mentioned either, 10% relaxation on 10 lakh rupee let’s say for a middle-class youth is equivalent go no relaxation, the financial autonomy will badly hurt many middle-class youths and in the process may not even opt to pursue their studies.

Having said so, the policy provides financial assistance to students who need financial support will be made available, Private HEIs will offer scholarship ranging from 100% to 25% for half of their students
The first question is, who will decide whether the student is fit for the scholarship or not? Definitely, with no external influence it will be the institutions, secondly many middle-class students not just the poor need scholarship for their daily necessities, not everyone who pursues higher education has the financial backing to continue relying on their parents for financial assistance, this will prevent many aspiring students for pursuing higher education and research in the coming days.

The problem with foreign universities
The policy says that foreign universities will be permitted to operate from India and will be given special dispensation on par with the other autonomous institutions of India.
Now the foreign universities conducting classes from India might seem good. Still, the fees for each course counts to millions, not everyone can afford to pay, and with the autonomy, the hat has been allowed, it is clear that the regulation has been included keeping the rich and wealthy in mind.
There will be no uniform scholarship, and the University will decide your requirement.

The problem with higher education
According to the policy, the present nomenclature of HEIs will be replaced by a single entity, the deemed Universities and others will cease to exist, and it will, as it seems, be a complete centralized system with the state having a very less say and regional culture comprised.

Some aspects of the New Education Policy sound good, but BJP Govt’s past policies and politics indicative of real intent (funding cuts, centralization, ideological coercion, ideologically committed mediocre VCs, assessments). Operational details key, too early to comment without Read different versions of National Education Policy to see how ad-hoc this is. The bulk of the document is anodyne motherhood and apple pie crap, but a sea change in proposed governance structures (which is where the real substance is)—no indication of any evolution of thought NEP 2020. Also, the height of incompetence: there are multiple versions of the New Education Policy floating around (without date or version number). See the big difference between them to know how ad-hoc policymaking under BJP is. Also, the MHRD website is down.

So even though this may add brownie points to Bjp’s pocket, the NEP is a propaganda machine that aims to centralize education and applies a homogeneous narrative of “Indian culture” to the curriculum. It furthers the autonomy to private institutions, seeks to digitalize education, thus rendering education inaccessible to the marginalized.

The policy does not account for its primary stakeholders – students and teachers. There are passing, misogynist references on the subject of gender. Oh, and the privileging of languages, especially Sanskrit.

But one conclusion that can be drawn is that NEP is Brahmanism, given its attempts to centralize, communalize education besides corporatism of education.
At an overview, the NEP seems to encompass some bits of progress, but the real devil is in the details. The policy only serves the privileged. It helps the interests of the present government, and it’s ideology.