Analysis of NEP 2020 in the Light of NAAC Accreditation: An Analytical Study of Academicians Opinion

Abstract

Since education promotes social and economic advancement, a nation\'s school and college levels require a well-defined and futuristic education strategy. “India has designed and planned to adopt a new education strategy throughout the next decade of the twenty-first century called the Indian National Education Policy under the direction of its current government and an expert committee with people from various backgrounds (NEP-2020)”. Practitioners and the general public are familiar with the aims, goals, and specifics. To give everyone access to high-quality primary and secondary education as well as post-secondary education and have the expectation of comprehensive and research-oriented advancement, NEP-2020 is an innovative and futuristic plan with both positive and negative features. This paper begins with an overview of NEP-2020, identifies the policy\'s strengths and weaknesses in the higher education and research sectors, evaluates the implementation recommendations made in the procedure, and identifies and analyzes potential generic strategies for NEP-2020 implementation to achieve its goals based on focus group discussions.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

To actively participate in developing the country into a sustainable and vibrant knowledge society, the National Education Policy 2020 intends to create an education system centered on India by considering its tradition, culture, values, and ethos. The foundation and development of the Indian educational system were inspired by its vast and extensive history. They considered the contributions made to the world by numerous researchers from various fields, such as mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, medical technology and surgical intervention, civil engineering, architecture, shipbuilding and navigation, yoga, fine arts, chess, etc. “The proposed NEP 2020 aims to increase the existing gross enrolment ratio (GER) to 50% by 2035 by offering a transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary liberal education to every aspirant”.

Aithal & Aithal.(2020). Found that The 1986 National Education Policy strongly emphasized employing information technology to modernize the educational system. More attention was paid to restructuring teacher education, early childhood care, female equality, and adult literacy. Autonomy for colleges and universities was also advocated to improve educational opportunities. However, NEP 1986 did not improve educational quality in generating graduates with marketable skills or research output in the form of patents and academic papers.

To compensate for the weaknesses of prior NEPs, NEP 2020 recommends a liberal education to promote interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary teaching and research at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

The challenge that India's National Educational Policy (NEP-2020) faces in its quest to elevate the country as a developed one by supporting developmental imperatives is the fourth of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aims to "ensure good education is accessible and equitable and encourage opportunities for lifelong learning for all." With its new national education plan 2020, which aims to give everyone fair access to high-quality education regardless of social or economic background, India believes it can achieve this goal by 2040 at the very least(Gupta &Choubey., 2021).

“The goal of the new policy, NEP-20, is to improve the quality of education at every stage by reviewing and modernizing the current educational structure, including policies, regulations, and control systems. This policy was developed with the vision of creating a platform and providing quality school and higher education to every citizen of the country with Indian ethos and values”.

II. SALIENT FEATURES OF NEP

The goal of the newly proposed NEP is to formally implement systemic reforms from the school level to the college/university level. Education content moving forward will concentrate on essential concepts, ideas, applications, and problem-solving stances in light of the evolving situation. The country's higher education system is anticipated to have sound and long-lasting effects due to the National Education Policy. The government's decision to let international colleges establish campuses in India is admirable. This will enable the children to benefit from a high international standard of local education. The introduction of multidisciplinary institutions will result in a renewed emphasis on all academic disciplines, including the arts and humanities, and this method of instruction will support students' holistic learning and development. Students will therefore possess a better knowledge basis. Another constructive measure that will lessen the strain of preparing for so many complex tests is implementing a single universal admission test. Additionally, it will guarantee future student applicants an equal playing field.

Gopalan, N., & Vezhaventhan. (2021). Founded that A solid proposal for storing the academic credits that students receive from taking classes at several reputable higher education institutions is to establish an Academic Bank of Credit (ABC). A student can receive scores by completing a course, which is then added to their ABC account. These credits can be transferred if a student wishes to transfer to another college. These credits will be preserved if a student ever withdraws for whatever reason, allowing the student to start up where they left off when they return years later. The new regulatory framework for higher education will ensure that independent, empowered entities carry out various administrative, accrediting, financial, and standard-setting functions. These four organizations will be constituted as four separate verticals under the auspices of the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI)

One of the main components of NEP 2020, which supports a "phasing out" plan from Affiliated Colleges to Autonomous Institutions, is the idea of "empowerment and autonomy to innovate." There is potential for curricular enrichment because of the enhanced flexibility of independent institutions. Furthermore, it stipulates that independent degree-granting schools with the appropriate accreditations might change into research- or teaching-intensive universities. The information that Multidisciplinary Research and Education Universities (MERUs) would be founded in the country adds to the sense of hope. The goal of these schools, which will be comparable to the current IITs and IIMs, is to demonstrate interdisciplinary education to Indian students.

Bora. (2020). Founded that According to the NEP 2020, a holistic and interdisciplinary education would seek to develop all human potential, including moral, cognitive, aesthetic, social, physical, and emotional. Such an education will also create an ethic of social involvement, soft skills like communication and debate, as well as well-rounded persons with essential 21st-century talents in the arts, humanities, language groups, sciences, social sciences, and professional, professional, and vocational domains, as well as a rigorous specialization in one or more fields. By 2030, the NEP 2020 plans to have one sizable, interdisciplinary higher education institution (HEI) in each district or close by.

(KC, 2022)Any undergraduate degree at any institution will take three or four years to complete under the National Education Policy 2020 program. Within this time, one may withdraw from the degree. Any educational institution must grant the student, in any professional or vocational course of their choosing, a diploma after two years of study, a degree after three years, and a certification after a year of research. A digital credit bank for academic results will be established with assistance from the Indian government. As a result, the schools will be able to add credit to the student's degree in the end. This will be useful for people who might need to abandon the course in the middle. Instead of starting over from scratch, they might pick up where they left off in the course later. Even though NEP 2020 states that higher education institutions would have the ability to launch PG programs, it could be challenging to create programs that last one year for students who have finished a four-year UG degree and two years for those who have done a three-year UG degree.

III. NAAC ACCREDITATION AND NEP

The Council for Accreditation. “NEP-2020 has created the Control of Quality through Biennial Accreditation Process. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council now oversees education quality and grants HEIs graded accreditations. The duration of this certification is five years. HEIs are not regularly checked for their accreditation status due to the short timeframe factor”. It is required to choose biennial accreditation for better jobs and performance. NEP-2020 has streamlined it and made it essential as a biennial accreditation procedure to increase the seriousness and effectiveness of accreditation status for continual development. In order to execute education effectively in the twenty-first century, the utilization of Information Communication and Computation Technologies (ICCT), such as technology, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, etc., is crucial. The qualities of the perfect educational system and ways to improve GER by choosing the newest technology to aid in planning, design, and efficient online education to recognize the value.

Technology-driven education will displace classroom-based instruction and NEP-2020 policies due to enhanced tech generations. In the twenty-first century, it is anticipated that we will establish the groundwork for an online and a classroom-based education system by including more research components. The sector and institutions that support both elementary and higher education have an integrated controlling and monitoring system. There are seven steps in the implementation process. According to NEP-2020, the first 10 years are for implementation, while the following 10 years are for operation (Rose, 2020).

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council will be replaced by the National Accreditation Council (NAC) (NAAC). The primary criteria for accreditation will be fundamental standards, open self-disclosures, excellent governance, and results to be carried out by a separate ecosystem of certifying institutions under the supervision and oversight of this new agency. This is relevant because, according to the Director of NAAC (2020), since inception 1994, this body has been able to assess and provide accreditation to just more than 13,000 institutions only out of a total of about 45,000 of them in higher education. This includes universities, colleges and stand-alone institutions across the nation. In an indepth interview published in The Times of India in May, 2020, the director expressed that the possibility of poor grades was the reason behind the non-participation of 22% of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the NAAC accreditation process. Following this, roughly 26% of institutions "did not apply" for it because they lacked permanent faculty, while another 5.5% did so because they lacked a permanent institution head. This leaves 25,000 institutions and 600 universities that are still "not recognized" nationwide. Even though this is a difficult fact, it illustrates the situation on the ground and the necessity for creative solutions to successfully address it. With a new structure and resources at its disposal, it is anticipated that the new organization would soon be able to handle the issue and close the deficit. To put it mildly, this is a difficult undertaking by any measure. The other related difficulty is to continuously monitor people who have previously received accreditation to ensure that their grades never deviate from the fundamental minimum in the future (D & Subramanian, 2021).

“The enforced detachment of qualifications, early specialization and student influx into confined research fields, a lack of emphasis on research at the majority of universities and schools, a lack of competitive peer-reviewed academic research funding, and large affiliated universities all contribute to the low undergraduate education standards in the Indian higher education system”.

IV. DISCUSSION

The educational system in India has seen several transformations in the past. As a result, the goals and objectives of education as well as the reason for evaluation changed. The majority of the evaluation techniques used in higher education institutions in India are written. The focus in the Indian educational system is on written evaluation. The purposes and objectives of the educational program are developed, followed, guided, and kept alive with the aid of assessment. The practice of precise, trustworthy, justifiable and fair evaluation is therefore a key prerequisite for any education system to be effective. One of the most important solutions is for professionals to be ready to deal with shifting conditions. Professionals need to learn about ethics, the value of social purpose, cross-disciplinary thinking and deliberate assessment, public discussion, innovation, and research as a part of the broader higher education system in order to take on the mantle of their professions. If intrinsic abilities are not repressed by professional training, they can be developed.

Conclusion

The economics, social status, rate of technology adoption, and positive human behavior of a country are all significantly influenced by higher education. The country\'s education ministry is in responsibility of improving GER so that all residents may access possibilities for higher education. The National Education Policy of India 2020 is working toward achieving this goal by implementing novel policies to enhance higher education\'s quality, allure, and affordability. “This will increase supply while also upholding standards throughout all higher education institutions through rigorous oversight”. NEP-2020 is anticipated to achieve its objectives by 2030 by promoting merit-based acceptance rates with free-ships and fellowships, merit-based continuous entertainers as faculty members, merit-based demonstrated leaders in regulating bodies, and stringent quality tracking through quadrennial certification based on self-declaration of advancement through innovation monitoring. All higher education institutions that currently refer to themselves as \"associate colleges\" will either change their name to reflect their growth into multidisciplinary impartial colleges with the capacity to award degrees or they will turn into \"constituent schools\" of their affiliated universities. The National Research Foundation, an autonomous entity, will provide funding for creative efforts in the important research fields of the social sciences and humanities, applied sciences, and basic sciences. The focus of this study is the “New Education Policy, 2020”.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2022 Dr. Prativindhya Saini. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.