A Year Of Hope

With schools reopening, NEP 2020 finally being embraced and major restructuring within the edtech space, will 2023 prove to be the year of recovery?

- Vasudha Mukherjee

THE PANDEMIC that gripped the world in 2020 put the education sector in India on a rollercoaster ride. The new education policy was launched after a 34-year wait, only to be stymied by the sudden shutdown of schools. Schools, colleges and higher learning institutes (HEI) bounced back quickly however, using technology for remote learning strategies. The unprecedented crisis also allowed decision-makers to step back and re-evaluate the role education should play and the impact it should create. The large-scale acceptance of technology in classrooms and online courses, along with the urgency for skilling, actually transformed the education sector. As institutions reopen, 2023 will usher in a new normal and one that is here to stay.

NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY

After nearly two years of debate and discussion, there finally seems to be a plan to begin the proper implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. In May 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting to review the implementation process and to elicit detailed plans from education leaders for achieving the goals set out in the policy.

In the wake of this meeting, in August 2022, B. C. Nagesh, Primary and Secondary Education Minister of Karnataka announced the state's decision to implement the NEP 2020 policy from the 2023-24 academic year. The states of Assam, Goa and Uttarakhand followed suit, as have many higher education institutes across the nation.