70% of schools say they have work to do for the NEP: XSEED survey

To be ready for the NEP, schools require to redesign the school curriculum and move to an experiential learning and concept-oriented teaching.

COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a top concern for school leaders, but implementation of the National Educaton Policy (NEP) is, as they have work to do around this.

India’s National Education Policy was introduced on July 29, 2020 aimed at transforming India's education system into a modern, progressive and equitable one. It seeks to introduce and implement changes across all levels of education in India and provides an important opportunity to move Indian education from “sorting and selection” to “human development,” enabling every student to develop to their maximum potential. It also seeks to implement changes in the way the facilitators of such education – schools, colleges and teachers – are trained and how they approach education.

To be ready for the NEP, schools require to redesign the school curriculum and move to an experiential learning and concept-oriented teaching. In order to deliver the curriculum effectively, schools will need to train teachers and understand the pedagogical needs to make a smooth transition to the new education system. XSEED’s survey with school leaders finds that a majority, 70%, feel they are not fully prepared for the implementation of the NEP and say they have work to do.

The implementation of the NEP (23%) is among the top three challenges faced by schools today that is split between concerns of student enrolments and admissions (29%) and teacher quality and retention (25%).

School leaders are however aligned on what they need to address and aspects of the NEP that they are most interested in. Pedagogy is top of mind with one out of every 2 schools (50%). This includes making changes in the curriculum that makes experiential and concept-oriented learning happen across subjects. 37% school leaders cite that they are interested in strengthening students’ core concepts to foster collaborative skills, critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making abilities in the youth. Further, professional development of teachers (25%) and foundational literacy and numeracy among students from the early ages to pave the way for higher education are of interest to 25%. Nearly 22% of school leaders also cite NEP’s focus on formative assessment for learning rather than summative assessment to be of interest.

“The NEP presents an unprecedented opportunity for India. In our view, the policy’s ‘big 3’ for school education are emphasis on early childhood education, restructuring pedagogy to be more skills focussed and experiential, and investing in professionalization and development of teachers. This is well received by school leaders and they are interested in embracing this shift. However, our survey clearly suggests that there are many challengesin implementing the reforms and that’s a key concern for schools.” said Ashish Rajpal, Founder, XSEED Education. XSEED ran a survey with 191 school owners and leaders in the weeks leading up to the second anniversary of the National Education Policy.