Will start by twinning with foreign universities: Amit Khare

There is no immediate need to make a legislative framework to bring in foreign universities, as the government wants to first start twinning arrangements with overseas institutes and assess how those work, higher education secretary Amit Khare tells Anubhuti Vishnoi, while speaking on the New Education Policy (NEP). Edited excerpts:

THE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
The implementation plan of the NEP 2020 will have to be sequential. The changes have to be gradual rather than disruptive, as we have a very diverse education system. There are about 117 things to do on higher education alone. We hope to start making the changes first in centrally funded educational institutes, and then states and private institutes which wish to make the switch can follow. This would take 3-4 years. Smaller institutes will probably be able to effect changes like multiple entry or exit and multidisciplinary education options earlier than others.
Among the first things to do is the multiple entry/exit format for which we need the Academic Bank of Credits. The pilot for the same will be conducted by December. The National Educational Technology Forum on new age technology for education is even more essential amid a pandemic. We hope to bring that about by October itself. The 5+3+3+4 format in schools can only come about after the new national curriculum framework is ready. This will take a year.

Similarly, mother tongue as the medium of instruction could start from the pre-primary level in a year or so. This will be very micro-managed at taluka and even at school level depending on factors like prevalent local language, number of children and so on. We will not be issuing circulars on this from the Centre — this has to be assessed and implemented on ground. Overall, the first major changes will be seen in both school and higher education from the 2021-22 academic session.

ON EXAM PRESSURE IN CLASSES 3, 5 AND 8
These will not be the usual exams. They are to be conducted by schools themselves in coordination with the new body we will be setting up the national assessment centre, PARAKH. The CBSE or any other board will not be involved with this. The children will be assessed in a 360-degree format through a progressive report card which will not score or pressurise children in any way.

FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES
The first step we will be taking is for twinning arrangements and collaborations with foreign institutes. For this purpose, we will be bringing in facilitatory regulations in time for the 2021-22 academic session.

The idea is that students should be able to complete a semester in the partnering foreign institutes. This will also only be made possible once our Academic Board of Credits is in place to ensure credit transfer. Areas like management, international law and engineering are likely to see the first round of such collaborations.

A legislative framework to bring in foreign universities, a Foreign Universities Bill, is not needed right away. We will assess the need for it after seeing how the twinning arrangement works out. It may not be necessary at all if twinning can serve the purpose. At the same time, we will also be bringing in regulations to allow Indian institutes to set up centres abroad.

FDI IN EDUCATION
This is also tied up with twinning. It is permitted but a foreign entity will only invest if there is a proper arrangement for mutual benefit. We are also clear in the policy that all surplus funds will have to be reinvested in education purposes here, it cannot be repatriated.

Single regulator
Our plan is to subsume UGC, AICTE and NCTE under a single regulator — the Higher Education Commission of India. By September-end, we will be putting out a draft Bill for public opinion. We will then take it to the Cabinet and aim at the winter session of Parliament. At the moment, this is the only legislation we are planning to move, following from the NEP 2020.

‘How to think’ focus
The move towards ‘how to think’ is to start from school. Under the NEP 2020, the first five years of schooling bring in a solid foundation to children in a playful manner, without overburdening them. The final four years of schooling are to offer much more than the usual science/arts/commerce and come with the choice of a vocational subject. The vocational subjects will offer much more from retailing to bank correspondence and so on, in tune with the modern work space.

After Class 12, there is a complete overhaul with options for multiple entry and exit from courses, an academic credit bank system and a bigger array of courses. All these are geared towards a ‘how to think’ approach, rather than ‘what to think’.

Inclusive enough?
Inclusiveness is essential. There are concerns over lower representation of women in academic leadership despite their higher gross enrolment ratio, for which a special gender inclusion fund is to be set up. Similarly, we will be working on the special education zone model for educationally backward areas, besides focussing on increasing enrolment of SCs, STs and OBCs. The National Research Foundation will further help create a research ecosystem to retain talent in the country, encourage faculty and boost research.

Chinese omission
If Mandarin was not mentioned in the NEP, nor was Arabic. That was just by way of example.

As far as the Confucius centres are concerned, we are looking at MoUs across universities and institutes signed with different countries. Over 5,000 such MoUs have been signed and we are conducting a review of these to check whether these are operational at all or not. The Confucius centres are also under review as part of this exercise.