Freedom to Select Subjects Good, Teaching in Mother Tongue a Handicap Says FairGaze Survey on NEP 2020

09 Oct, 2020

Summary: Eminent Panellists on Fair Talks organised by FairGaze discussed the National Education Policy 2020 and analysed the FairGaze survey results which indicated that 92% favoured freedom to select subject across streams and 54% felt that teaching in mother tongue will be a handicap for students in higher classes.

New Delhi 09 October 2020: The eminent panellists from education industry on Fair Talks discussed the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) and analysed the FairGaze survey results which indicated that 92% favoured freedom to select subject across streams and 54% felt that teaching in mother tongue will be a handicap for students in higher classes. As per the survey, over 86% agreed that the NEP 2020 is better than previous one and 75% agreed that it is easy to understand and implement. An overwhelming 93% opined that importance given to sports will help students.

The panellists on Fair Talks, a discussion and analysis on topics affecting school community, included Dr. Ragini Kaul, Principal -Maxfort School,Ms. Pallavi Sharma, Principal - Mamta Modern School and Brigadier MG Jacob (Retd), Principal & Director - Tashi Namgyal Academy, Gangtok and Dr. C B Mishra, Director & Principal - Prudence School.

Delving on the convergence of the Skill Development Policy and NEP, Dr Ragini Kaul said that, "NEP which has integrated the vocational skills at middle segment is a brilliant step". She added that carpentry, plumbing, etc and the 10 bagless days are excellent steps.

Answering on how the pedagogy can be taken to rural areas, Ms. Pallavi Sharma said, "We all that 430 million students in under the age 18 and at least 50% of these children may be in the villages and remote areas. It is very important that teachers be trained."

Asked how the school will address program challenges when students are given choice of subjects, Brigadier M G Jacob said, "The real problem is what will the higher education colleges demand. The policy talks about student-teacher ratio of 30:1 which will creation of additional infrastructure than what most schools have. The challenge will be for the Government schools. One clear solution is Government school going for private partnerships. BMC (Mumbai municipality) has done a good job on this." He added that training of teachers is another huge challenge and shared that during his critical review he found Coursera has lot of pedagogical courses available which he is encouraging his teachers to go for and even funding them for motivating them.

In conclusion, Dr C B Mishra said with implementation of freedom to chose subjects, the students will move from one class to the other instead of teachers as is the practice now. He added that CBSE has created the "Hubs of Learning" for teachers for sharing the pedagogical system, in addition to initiatives like Vidya Daan and other channels on Youtube. Additionally, CBSE has created Centre of Excellence in all the regions and Sahodaya since 1992 to share best practices and conduct teacher trainings.

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FairGaze is the largest school media and an engagement ecosystem for holistic development, which works with various stakeholders and policy makers, including organisers of premium events associated with education industry. FairGaze engages with over 350,000 students from over 13,000 schools across India. FairGaze works with schools to help manage their newsletter, conduct holistic development programs, promote the sports and cultural functions of the schools and recognise the achievements of the students.

Check out the survey results on https://www.slideshare.net/fairgaze/survey-on-national-educational-policy-nep-implementation