The Union Cabinet endorsed the current National Education Policy (NEP), and this is the first time such a program has been introduced in the last 34 years. The Project is innovative and revolutionary but part of its performance relies on how it is achieved.
In December 2018, a panel chaired by ISRO president K Kasturirangan submitted a draft NEP which was released for public input after the May 2019 Lok Sabha election.
The new NEP would incorporate a broad variety of reforms, such as providing free schooling for everyone up to the age of 18 and increased flexibility to eliminate dropouts due to multiple causes and scrapping the 10 + 2 system with a 5 + 3 + 3 + 4 school education framework.
There is a major step towards streamlining pre-school education up to the age of 6 and promoting regional language education up to class 5. A strict distinction between separate types, or between curricular and co-curricular events, or vocational and non-vocational issues, may also cease.
Learning and examination will now become more comprehensive with limited tests in grades 3, 5 and 8 only, and a transition in the board exam trend of class 10 and class 12 is predicted in the immediate future as well.
In addition, the reforms concentrate on fostering children’s talents to ensure that they render good workers, and more importantly, effective leaders, and entrepreneurs.
In this article, we’re going to concentrate on how the NEP 2020 is a brilliant step to further develop India as the startup city, but first, let’s have a quick overview of what improvements the NEP has made.
NEP 2020 – A Detailed Analysis
This is the Indian government’s third acquired education program in its attempts to increase Indian education levels. A decision that is much required. It is also the BJP’s first Education Policy 34 years since the last program was introduced. The strategy has been endorsed by the union cabinet but has yet to be discussed in Parliament.
The current National Education Agenda also calls for more state-centric oversight. It’s the only strategy, though, and not the rules to obey. Below are some of the key issues.
Related – Government’s Role In Advancing Entrepreneurship & Business In India
NEP For School
Effective teaching and curriculum framework of the schools (5 + 3 + 3 + 4):
Currently, the education framework meets the form 10 + 2. Soon this will be substituted by the curricular structure 5 + 3 + 3 + 4. The new framework can be clearly represented if it correlates similarly to the age of a boy, i.e. 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years. The very first stage involves time spent in kindergartens and Anganwadi.
This new framework divides the existing framework according to a child’s cognitive growth stages. There is early adolescence, years of education, and secondary schooling. It should also be remembered that this structural change doesn’t change the years a child spends in formal education. They just stay the same as ever.
The new framework introduces many improvements to the structure of the examination. A child gives an exam after any academic year, in compliance with current norms. But children would only be given tests in Class 3,5, and 8 once the NEP is introduced. This is apart from boards that would have major improvements too.
Mandatory education for children aged between 3 and 18
Earlier, education was obligatory for children aged 6 to 14. Now school for children aged between three and 18 would be required.
This change will also encourage those aged 14-18 to claim the same Right to Education (RTE) that was already available until 14years ago. Now kids above the age of 14 will expect that too. Meaning they will be educated at every government educational institution up to 12th grade free of charge.
Mother tongue as the means of education
Evidently, the mother tongue is the first language an infant knows. And learning new concepts when if done in the mother tongue itself would be much better. The medium of instruction in schools would also change to incorporate this.
This step is also influenced by the study of the instructional process introduced in some European countries. When a child is brought into the schooling system in these countries, he is only taught in his mother tongue depending on the region, be it German, Italian, Spanish, Russian etc. Because of this, infants can readily understand simple ideas. This is made obligatory before at least 5th grade or better before 8th grade
The 3-language policy is also included by the NEP. Here at the school, all students will learn three languages. It is necessary to provide at least two of the three languages originating in India.
The implementation of this program also correlates with the goal of the NEP to raise the Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education. The failure to deal with languages such as English has been shown to be the reason for falling out.
Baglessdays and casual internship
This means that students will be participating in a bagless 10-day period. Grade 6-8 learners will be interning with local vocational specialists like carpenters, gardeners, potters, artists etc. during this time.
This was another step that was greatly welcomed as required professionals whom society looks down on will hopefully be regarded in the coming generations with new outlooks. This move would also allow children to learn a minimum of one capacity over the era.
Coding for children
Children will also be able to learn to code from Class 6 when their education would incorporate coding. This move would set students on par with the Chinese where similar coding strategies already have been put in place in their educational process.
Multi-stream flexibility
Once the NEP is introduced, the students’ compartmentalization into Humanities, Science and Business after the 10th will become distorted. Now students can take courses from different backgrounds based on their preferences.
For example, by taking up subjects such as economics and politics, a student interested in physics would be able to do so. That was one of the NEP’s most praised moves. In addition, Bachelor’s programs would likely be multidisciplinary in nature, with no strict division between arts and sciences.
NEP For College
Common college entrance exam
Students will now be evaluated by traditional SAT (present in the US) as assessments that will determine students’ qualifications for the various colleges. These assessments are to take place twice a year.
4-year bachelor degree
Funnily enough, this move was widely criticized in Delhi when introduced only a few years earlier. Not only does this move make bachelor’s degrees longer, but it also offers students the opportunity to change degrees if they believe it does not suit them. A student who knows this and is letting go.
They are therefore permitted to pass the credits that they received in the previous degree to the degree they select. A student who wishes to drop out after 2 years of study will do so and will earn a graduation certificate aligned with that degree. Students who drop out after 3 years will earn a bachelor’s degree that is just lacking in the last year on study opportunities today.
Fee cap
The New policy implies a limit on the fee in the higher education area charged by private institutions. Affordability has become one of the main challenges a student encounters while seeking to pursue affordable higher education. An enforced fee cap will go a long way towards making education more equal.
Starting up higher education to international players
According to this, the world’s top 100 educational institutions are now being invited to come to India and set up campuses. 750,000 Indian students go abroad each year to seek higher education. Not only can this step go a long way towards reducing brain drain but it will also aim to make global education more affordable. A similar strategy was successfully adopted in the UAE.
The UAE is also home to colleges such as the Hult International Business School, Wollongong University, British University, Sharjah and Dubai American University. Now that UAE is able to introduce such a move, this also shows the direction for countries such as India.
Schools/school buildings will be urged to employ local eminent individuals or specialists as ‘master teachers’ in a range of subjects, such as traditional performing arts, technical crafts, manufacturing, agriculture, or some other topic where there is local talent, to support students and help retain and cultivate local knowledge and occupations.
A detailed teacher-requirement forecasting exercise based on the technology will be performed by each State to determine the projected shortage of subject-matter teachers for the next 2 centuries
The above-mentioned recruiting and implementation strategies would be extended overtime as required, to fill all positions with eligible teachers, including local teachers, with sufficient career management and development rewards as listed below. The services and incentives for teacher education would also correspond with the positions so predicted.
Why NEP 2020 Shines Bright For Aspiring Entrepreneurs
The term Entrepreneurship had evolved from the “willingness to take risks” to be more about “innovative way of thinking, planning and organizing” in order to contribute to and manage new forms of business ventures professionally. The entire aim is to continue to grow and prosper inside a dynamic global marketplace.
To learn new-age companies and innovative business models, entrepreneurship has become one of the most common subjects the college students and working executives are exploring. With the introduction of NEP 2020, entrepreneurship education will be integrated into the curriculum of the top business schools in India. Interestingly this type of education was already dominating the regular curriculum at engineering and management education, and will soon be adopted by schools too.
When it comes to entrepreneurship, rather than the more conventional theoretical approach, entrepreneurs tend to rely more on ‘working’ and making things happen, in the real world. That said, there are occasions when academia’s protection and a soft learning atmosphere can be advantageous relative to the cutthroat business world.
Most of the recommendations in the NEP 2020 indicates the perfect balance, which adopts the benefits of both forms of education.
We’ve analyzed the recommendations carefully and have determined the most useful skills students will adopt that will help them become successful entrepreneurs:
- Curiosity to identify problem areas
- Business environment
- Economic environment
- Understanding of demand and supply
- Researching on the solution with Creativity and design thinking
- Consolidate ideas: open, discuss, close
- Time management
- Operational Efficiency
- Financial management
- Resilience
- Communication
- Networking
- Branding
Besides these core skills, students will also get an opportunity to learn more advanced techniques and values that will greatly benefit them. We’ve mentioned the most prominent ones in this blog.
Thinking Like An Entrepreneur
It’s no wonder that entrepreneurs “think differently;” in a far more imaginative way, they ask provocative questions, and conduct business. In her efforts to explain the thought mechanisms of entrepreneurs, Saras Sarasvathy found that successful entrepreneurs were simply using a different approach to logic when making their business decisions. In her research, ” What makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?”, Sarasvathy argues that “Entrepreneurs are visionary as distinct from bureaucratic or political, and they think effectively: they believe in a world that is yet to be created and can be formed significantly by human intervention.”
According to Sarasvathy, effectual rationality is the opposite of causality. Traditional education systems around the world are very good at teaching students to think causally, to set a predetermined goal and then obtain the means and resources to find the most efficient way to achieve it. People who, on the other hand, use successful logic to begin with a given set of means and encourage priorities to arise and evolve over time. For example, Google did not launch as a creative vision or ingenious idea but as a project to better search for libraries. It ignited a series of small findings that ultimately unleashed a disruptive business model.
Sarasvathy illustrates this well when she says, “Causal thinking is based on the principle, ‘We can monitor it to the degree that we can forecast the future.’ That’s why both researchers and business practitioners today invest massive quantities of brain capacity and money on designing predictive models. Effectual thinking, though, is based on the principle, ‘In the point that we can influence the future, we do not need to predict it.”
In short, she prefers causal thinkers like great generals who strive like conquer fertile lands, while successful thinkers are adventurers who venture off on uncharted waters journey.
Using one kind of reasoning is not necessarily preclusive. In reality, when creating an idea, most active entrepreneurs begin with logical thought and progress towards causal logic towards the latter part of the creation of a project. However, it is very difficult for most people to follow this more innovative, more successful approach. In reality, there are strong forces pushing us into more logical thought in the opposite direction.
A Different Mindset
Much of the impetus for introducing entrepreneurial thought to high school students is to help them grasp entrepreneurial logic and actions and open them to the fact that there is a better form of thinking, a different way of behaving from what is usually promoted in their education system, particularly at a small stage. We encourage them to understand this distinction and incorporate divergent thought processes into their own behavior, in some situations.
Validating Divergent Thinking
That takes us back to the issue that can you really teach entrepreneurship? Promising efforts to improve entrepreneurial mindsets and attitudes appear to be ongoing but the way they are best learned is still under consideration. When anyone has impulses in this direction, we will affirm their thought mechanisms and giving them encouragement to follow their motivation by introducing them early on to the fact that there is more than one way of thinking, raising the probability that they can go on and taking on the challenges of entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial Intention
In research that has been conducted over the years, entrepreneurial intent is described as “a person’s self-recognized conviction that they intend to set up a new business enterprise and are actively intending to do so at some point in the future” (Thompson, 2009: 676). Company intent is also a good indication of entrepreneurship success. The future alluded to in the previous concept of business goals can be close or far away. Moreover, the purpose need not actually be achieved.
Despite its intellectual ambivalence, the entrepreneurial intention has been a topic of substantial study over the last three decades (Fayolle & Liñán, 2014; Liñán & Fayolle, 2015). Its popularity was dominated by intention-based entrepreneurial theories such as Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), Bird’s Theory of Implementing Entrepreneurial Ideas (Bird, 1988), and Shapero and Sokol’s Theory of Entrepreneurial Event (Shapero & Sokol, 1982). Ses ideas promote the idea that risky projects like launching a company are not serendipitous and instead required careful planning by an entrepreneur. The company operation is thus systematic and pre-planned.
In terms of this, several entrepreneurial research studies have used intention as a predictor for potential entrepreneurial behavior. The utility of entrepreneurial purpose as a study variable is perceptible as a measure of the effect of entrepreneurial education by its widespread implementation.
Risk-taking Propensity
The definition of risk-taking tendency refers to the degree to which a person is able to take opportunities involving a failure potential (Verheul et al., 2015). It includes. “.. the ability to devote considerable capital to prospects with a fair risk of costly loss” (Alvarez, De Noble, & Jung, 2006:390). Such propensity is critical in shaping the decision of an individual to engage in an entrepreneurial career instead of pursuing corporate employment (Antonic et al., 2015). The risk-taking tendency epitomizes an entrepreneurial mindset at both firm and individual levels, according to Callaghan and Venter (2011) and (Zhang et al., 2014).
Conclusion
Driving entrepreneurship will be the catalyst for high-value job-creation and support to much needed economic growth in India. In this article, we discussed the significance of Entrepreneurial education in order to reduce the chances of start-up failure, and how the NEP 2020 is the perfect move in that direction.
You should train to be an entrepreneur since it’s not a natural ability that people are born with, it’s a skill (or rather a skill group) that anybody who wants to learn should build – that said, many entrepreneurs will say that you can’t learn to be an entrepreneur from a book, since it’s experiential learning that’s needed, especially in cultivating the right mentality.
Hence, the recommendations mentioned in the NEP 2020 are a perfect motivation to cultivate entrepreneurial skills in bright individuals from a young age.
After all, the secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Also Read – Scope and Present Scenario of Entrepreneurship In India
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