The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which was introduced by the Government of India to overhaul the education system, plays a crucial role in addressing these issues. As per this policy, access and governance are critical for the socio-economic development and overall well-being of the nation. Providing universal access to quality education is the key to India’s continued ascent, and leadership on the global stage in terms of economic growth, social justice and equality, scientific advancement, national integration, and cultural preservation. Universal high-quality education is the best way forward for developing and maximizing our country's rich talents and resources for the good of the individual, the society, the country, and the world. Further, our ability to provide high-quality educational opportunities to young population of Indian will determine the future of our country.

By providing access to quality education from early childhood through secondary education (across foundational, preparatory, middle, and secondary stages), the policy aims to ensure equitable opportunities for all children through multiple pedagogies including play-based and discovery-based pedagogy to improve learning outcomes and promote holistic development. A significant aspect of NEP 2020 is ensuring equitable access to education for all sections of society, including marginalized communities, children with disabilities, and those living in remote areas. The policy aims to bridge the digital divide and promote digital literacy to ensure access to online resources and education in the era of technology. It envisions integration of vocational education to enhance employability.

Multilingualism is an inherent part of India's cultural fabric and represents its rich linguistic diversity. The NEP 2020's focus on early education in mother tongue, and development bilingual textbooks and making available children’ literature in multiple languages are steps in the right direction to ensure high-quality education.

Quality education largely relies on well-trained and motivated teachers. The NEP 2020 emphasizes the importance of continuous professional development for teachers, encouraging them to adopt innovative teaching practices and stay updated with evolving pedagogical methods.

The Department of School Education and Literacy is implementing an initiative of Vocationalisation of School Education under the umbrella of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Samagra Shiksha” for integrating Vocational Education with general academic education in all Secondary/Senior Secondary schools; enhancing the employability and entrepreneurial abilities of the students , providing exposure to work environment; and generating awareness amongst students about various career options so as to enable them to make a choice in accordance with their aptitude, competence and aspirations. Under the scheme, National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) compliant vocational courses are offered to the students from 9th to 12th in the schools covered under the scheme.

NEP 2020 proposes the revision and revamping of all aspects of the education structure including its regulation and governance to create a new system that is aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st century education including SDG4, while building upon India’s traditions and value systems. It focuses on creating School Complexes, School Management Committees (SMCs), and strengthening the role of local communities in school administration.

1.1 Expected Outcomes of the Session

Understanding the issues related to access to quality education and governance with special focus on:

• ECCE [Early Childhood Care and Education]
• Teacher Professional Development
• Outdated Curricula
• Quality learning-teaching material (in print and e-form)
• Inclusion
• Multilingual education?
• Getting acquaintance about new and innovative methods to provide quality education in schools?
• Sharing of strategies including use of ICT to strengthen governance in school education?

1.2 Roadmap for Institutes

In view of strengthening foundational learning, the NEP 2020 has emphasized upon strengthening of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) with the help of a National Mission on FLN. Further, it also recommends provisioning quality ECCE by developing a National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECCE) for children up to the age of 8 by the NCERT which is aligned with the guidelines of the NEP 2020, the latest research on ECCE, and national and international best practices. The framework will serve as a guide both for parents and for early childhood care and education institutions. The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with NCERT, has already launched NIPUN Bharat Mission for strengthening FLN.

It was also recognised that with the lack of universal access to ECCE, a large proportion of children already fall behind within the first few weeks of Grade 1. Thus, to ensure that all students are school ready, an interim 3-month play-based ‘school preparation module’ for all Grade 1 students, consisting of activities and workbooks around the learning of alphabets, sounds, words, colours, shapes, and numbers, and involving collaborations with peers and parents, was developed by NCERT and SCERTs. An emphasis has also been given on the development of a national repository of high-quality resources on foundational literacy and numeracy and its availability on the Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA). A concerted national effort will be made to ensure universal access and afford opportunity to all children of the country to obtain quality holistic education–including vocational education - from pre-school to Grade 12.

The credibility of Government schools shall be re-established, and this will be attained by upgrading and enlarging the schools that already exist, building additional quality schools in areas where they do not exist, and providing safe and practical conveyances and/or hostels, especially for the girl children, so that all children can attend a quality school and learn at the appropriate level. Alternative and innovative education centres will be put in place in cooperation with civil society to ensure that children of migrant labourers, and other children who are dropping out of school due to various circumstances are brought back into mainstream education.

All efforts will be made in preparing high-quality bilingual textbooks and teaching-learning materials for science and mathematics, so that students are enabled to think and speak about the two subjects both in their home language/mother tongue and in English.

High-quality textbook materials will be developed by NCERT as a follow-up of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education in conjunction with the SCERTs. States will prepare their own curricula (which may be based on the NCFSE prepared by NCERT to the extent possible) and prepare textbooks (which may be based on the NCERT textbook materials to the extent possible) incorporating State flavour and material as needed. The availability of such textbooks in all regional languages will be a top priority so that all students have access to high-quality learning.

In view of providing barrier free access to quality education for all children including children with disabilities, assistive devices and appropriate technology-based tools as well as adequate and language-appropriate teaching-learning materials (e.g., textbooks in accessible formats such as large print and Braille) need to be made available to help children with disabilities.

In view of improving quality of teachers, NCTE has been implementing Integrated Teacher Education Programmes and in the process of finalising National Professional Standards for Teachers.

1.3 Best Practices

Quality Education

The National Education Policy, 2020 is in the process of implementation. In view of implementing the NEP 2020 and addressing the expectations of our society for our future learners, following major initiatives have been undertaken to provide access to quality education which are being practiced across the states and UT within their own contexts:

A. NISHTHA “National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement

NEP 2020 emphasises on Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of teachers. It recommends 50 hrs CPD for every teacher in a year. NISHTHA – National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement – is an integrated teacher training programme designed by the NCERT to build the capacities of around 42 lakh elementary teachers and Heads of Schools at the elementary stage, faculty members of SCERTs and DIETs and Block Resource Coordinators and Cluster Resource Coordinators. This programme has been expanded to cover teachers at different stages. So far NISHTHA Elementary, Secondary ,Foundational Literacy and Numeracy ,ECCE has been introduced for different stages of school education for Teachers, Head Teachers/Principals and other stakeholders in Educational management.

NIPUN initiative:

National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) has been launched under Samagra Shiksha for ensuring that every child in the country necessarily attains foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) by the end of Grade 3. Learning Outcomes for the Secondary level have also been notified.

B. Digital Initiatives

Following digital initiatives taken under the implementation of NEP, 2020 have been helping in realisation of the goal of reaching out to every learner of the country and providing equitable and inclusive education.

PM e-VIDYA has been initiated which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education. The programme envisions digital mode of learning for children under the major heads: DIKSHA- One nation, One digital platform for school education, One class, One channel- 2 Channels for PM e-VIDYA, Use of radio, community radio and podcast, digital education for the differently abled. Sign language videos are also developed and disseminated. The 12 DTH TV Channels cover NCERT’s textbook chapter-based video resources for Classes 1-12.

DIKSHA - One Nation, One Digital Platform

The DIKSHA portal currently houses 6,068 QR coded-energized textbooks, including 361 NCERT textbooks. There are 307,475 lakhs e-contents (in the form of videos) contributed by States/UTs and Autonomous bodies that are currently live on DIKSHA. There are 8,740+ e-courses available on DIKSHA till date. Till now 954 Indian Sign Language (ISL) based videos for class 1 to 5 are uploaded on DIKSHA and simultaneously telecast on PM e-VIDYA channels. The virtual lab vertical on DIKSHA houses 218 simulations and the Vocational Education vertical on DIKSHA provides e-content in the form of audios, videos on 19 sector wise job roles for grade 9-12.

C. Inclusive Education –Development of Accessible Content

National Education Policy (2020) has emphasized developing UDL (Universal Design of Learning) based accessible teaching-learning material on holistic development of students with special needs studying in inclusive classrooms. For the first time, NEP 2020 has recognized Indian Sign Language (ISL) as a language and advocated the development of curriculum-based material in ISL. A lot of accessible content has been developed to provide educational e-Content to every nook and corner of the country through online as well as offline modes, and to sustain inclusive and equitable education. These e-Content is developed by a well-skilled and trained team of academicians, special educators, ISL experts, teachers, production team as an in-house project.

ISL advocacy is being done through live interactive sessions on PMeVIDYA DTH TV Channels, “Teaching Learning Interventions in Inclusive Classrooms. - Ask the Expert”.

D. Toy-based Pedagogy (Experiential Learning)

Handbook on Toy-based Pedagogy

The NEP 2020 has given much importance to experiential and play-based learning. Toys, Games and Puppets are at the core of experiential learning for across the stages. Given this perspectives, Ministry of Education has launched a Handbook on Toy-based Pedagogy developed by the NCERT on the occasion of Shikshak Parva, 2022, which will be helpful in integrating toys and games in the curriculum across the stages and promote use of not only available indigenous toys, games and puppetry across the schools in all the regions, but also inspire teachers and students to design innovative toys with indigenous material across the stages for the development of competencies and skills mapped with these toys. It will also enhance the need for variety of indigenous toys for schools and teacher education institution. The Handbook on Toy-based pedagogy provides many examples of mapping of competencies in all the subject areas and in multidisciplinary manner with toys across the stages. It also elaborates upon the importance and benefits of toys at the foundational, preparatory, middle, and secondary stages.

Modules on Toy-based Pedagogy

Two modules on Toy -base pedagogy, one for the NISHTHA (secondary stage teachers) and other for the NISHTHA for teachers dealing with the foundational stage have been developed. Around 7.5 lakh secondary stage teachers and 9.5 lakh teachers dealing with foundational stages have completed module on toy-based pedagogy at DIKSHA portal.

National and International Webinars on Toy-based Pedagogy

National and International Webinars on Toy-based Pedagogy have been conducted in 2021-22 and learning from these webinars have been incorporated in the Handbook and in the modules on toy-based pedagogy.

Vidya Pravesh

Guidelines for three-month play-based school preparation module for Grade-I children has been released on 29th July 2021 to ensure that all children are exposed to a warm and welcoming environment when they enter Grade-I.

E. Implementation of NCF-FS (Access to quality Learning -Teaching Material)

Jaadui Pitara : As a follow-up of the NCF-FS, keeping play at the core of learning, a collection of Learning- Teaching Material for the foundational stage titled as Jaadui Pitara has been launched on 20th February 2023 by the MoE.

Textbooks for Classes 1 and 2: Based on the syllabus, textbooks for Hindi, English, Mathematics and Urdu for Classes 1 and 2 have been developed and launched by Hon’ble Education Minister on 04.07.2023. The textbooks focus on play based, discovery based, story based pedagogical approaches rooted in our culture for curriculum transaction.

1.4 Governance

A 70 indicator based matrix Performance Grading Index (PGI) has been developed to grade the States/UTs.

A. Rationalisation of Schools

Many states in India have undertaken rationalisation of schools to optimize the education system and improve quality of education. Some of these states include Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha.

B. Vidya Samisksha Kendra

Vidya Samiksha Kendra set up in Gujarat for monitoring school education at the State Level is the first of its kind initiative in the country. As part of the initiative, Vidya Samiksha Kendra was established to be the nerve centre for all transformational interventions. It has been instrumental to conceptualize, plan, implement, nurture, monitor, and evaluating the initiatives to ensure ‘Schooling to Learning’. It has been established to ensure seamless communication and coordination across stakeholders and to improve the quality of data reported through Quality assurance and data triangulation.

Vidya Samiksha Kendra would be a key enabler for the State in enabling its mission to shift from schooling to learning. Vidya Samiksha Kendra will focus on objective data analysis and actionable insights, predictive analysis for future readiness, and technology for seamless communication among stakeholders. It will fix accountabilities and provide tailor-made support to the stakeholders for bridging identified gaps.

The Structured Assessment for Anayzing Learning Levels (SAFAL) framework has been developed by CBSE schools for grades 3, 5 and 8 focusing on testing for core concepts, application based questions and higher order thinking skills.

C. Improving Classroom Transactions through inclusion of technology and enabling digital learning:

Smart Classes, ICT Labs and Tablets: To enhance the quality of learning, more than 12,000 smart classes has been setup in the State, with an additional 18,000 smart classes and 800+ ICT labs under commissioning.

• Access to world class educational content
• Online classes in collaboration with experts from India’s most prestigious institutes
• Providing state of the art smart classes & ICT Labs even to the most rural and remote parts of the state

With these trendsetting initiatives, India aims to provide high quality education to all. Close collaboration between stakeholders including government, policymakers, civil societies, industry, and NGOs will be crucial for accelerated impact of the same in the country. It will also help in collaborative action and allow for calibration by leveraging the expertise offered by the institutions outside of Governments.