Union Cabinet Approves New Education Policy 2020: Here Are The Key Announcements

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a New Education Policy (NEP) and renamed the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry to Education Ministry.

A single regulator for higher education institutions, multiple entry and exit options in degree courses, discontinuation of MPhil programmes and common entrance exams for universities are among the highlights of the new policy.

These changes are important as the policy, which was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992, had not been revised since then, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Here are some of the key announcements in the New Education Policy:

- MPhil courses will be discontinued under the new policy and all other courses at undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD level will now be interdisciplinary.

- All higher education institutions, except legal and medical colleges, will be governed by a single regulator

- Common entrance exams will be held for admission to universities and higher education institutions

- Affiliation of colleges will be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism is to be established for granting graded autonomy to colleges

- Class 10, 12 board exams will be based on knowledge application and focus will be on testing concepts

- School curriculum will be reduced to core concepts and there will be integration of vocational education from class 6

- Home language, mother tongue or regional language will be the medium of instruction up to class 5

- The policy also aims to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3 pc (2018) to 50 pc by 2035. At least 3.5 crore new seats will be added to higher education institutions