The present Covid-19 pandemic has not only affected economies across the world but also rattled educational structures and governments. The last one and a half years was a very difficult year by all means but it will be a year that will go down in history as the biggest sprint in the students learning outcome. India is recently implemented the National Education Policy 2020 to transform the education system but however implemented cannot touch the roots of problems of the poverty-driven students. The NEP could also be called a revolutionary measure within the history of education after 34 years and it aims to ensure quality education to students instead of root-learning. It came up with all the new elements to be sure that students are moulded with practical skills and should work towards the overall development of their arena of choices.
Although, the changes are stated to bridge gaps of access, and learning outcomes of the students, it fails to affect the problems of the rural citizens who cannot afford quality education and avail the varied new inputs to be put in educational institutions like vocational education,co-curricular curriculum. Growing privatization of education in conjunction with no assurance of quality is placing a huge burden on citizens and thus the report takes no cognisance of such trends. The actual fact is that the rural candidates are finding it increasingly difficult to understand entry into the professional education and thus the shortage of fit between their degrees and thus the work market means several lakhs of them find themselves both “unemployable” and unemployed. These are issues that find no mention within the report. Although the NEP claims to “bridge gaps in access, participation and learning outcomes’’, it overlooks the actual fact that poor quality education strikingly marks the lives of rural citizens. Neglecting to interact with any idea of fostering equality of educational opportunity with equality in quality education, the NEP fails to affect the growing school differentiation during which government schools are now primarily attended by children of disadvantaged castes and Adivasi groups, while private schools cater to the aspirations of the more advantaged castes and classes. That such school differentiation defies the thought of education as a leveller and thus the likelihood of schooling acting as a shared experience that forges social coherence may be a problem that the NEP committee seems to be ignorant about. the students from remote areas cannot have access to online learning and most of them are basically dependent upon mid-day meals, which will be again interrupted if privatisation of colleges happens. This NEP 2020 won't only deprive the students of marginalised classes and communities a right to education, as enshrined within the Indian constitution, it'll also make education a prerogative of the upper-caste elites and concrete bourgeoisie. If one critically analyses the NEP 2020, then it'll be found that rather than making this education system inclusive for the students, especially those from marginalised sections, rather than lightening the burden of studies and ending the colonial hangovers within the education system, it does precisely the other of what it claims. National Education Policy 2020 is proposing to make school education a 15-year-long affair while doing away with the board examinations. As most students from poor and marginalised sections face immense difficulty in completing even the prevalent 12 years of schooling, it'll be impossible for several of them to review for an extra three years. this might eventually force more dropouts and only those with a much better financial condition can complete the 15-year-long tenure. Only the rich and thus the urban middle-class students are getting to be able to complete school education because of this extended duration. Even by doing away with the board exams at the tenth and 12th standards, NEP if implemented, will confirm that the govt. job grades, especially in Indian Railways, where folks that have passed tenth and 12th standards are hired, are also dissolved, which may mean far fewer employment opportunities for the poor and marginalised people. At a time when unemployment is skyrocketing, such a step will bring far more hardship on the youth who aim at finishing the essential schooling to become qualified for such jobs. The NEP involves education institutes to plug and support the teaching of “lok vidya” and it highlights the importance of yoga, AYUSH, and Sanskrit, which can be taught in conjunction with AI, machine learning, and digital learning, so as that youth are often prepared for a worldwide economy. during this narrow perspective, there is no scope for considering the establishment of smaller regional learning centers during which the youth are often taught a spread of revamped older knowledge systems in conjunction with newer skills and knowledge. Although the NEP-2020 report claims that the aim of education is to understand the human potential, develop an equitable and just society and promote national development, it fails to cater to the wants of rural India’s marginalised majority.
On the positive side, this pandemic has made all the educational schools across the world adopt teaching online. Courses are conducted online, examinations are conducted online, assignments are submitted through email. For countries like India, this is a good opportunity to strengthen internet connectivity across rural India. Every village and town in India should be digitally connected for better interaction between the students and teachers.