National Education Policy, 2020: Impetus to entrepreneurial revolution

Dr. Bharat

 There’s no denying the fact that the Indian education system though one of the credible ones among developing nations, left a lot to be desired, especially on the entrepreneurial front. To keep pace and plug gaps, the Government of India has replaced 34-year-old National Policy on Education, with the National Education Policy of 2020 (NEP). The NEP, as approved by the Union Cabinet, on one hand promises to make sweeping reforms in education and research, whereas, on the other hand it aims to create new possibilities for life-long learning, besides making it industry-oriented with emphasis on entrepreneurship.

 The overarching goal of the entrepreneurial revolution has been woven in the NEP in the sense that it aspires to make young generation more imaginative, innovative, ingenious, proactive, pioneering, prospect oriented. This is at the core of entrepreneurship and is also a competence that all demography increasingly needs to have in today’s milieu, regardless of career choice.

 Preparing a roadmap for entrepreneurship

Given the explosive pace of technological development allied with the sheer creativity, the NEP, promotes student entrepreneurs with the exposure to vocational education in partnership with industry and in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goal 4.4 (SDG). Integration of vocational education with educational offerings in all institutions by choosing focus areas based on skills gap analysis and mapping of local opportunities will develop entrepreneurial competencies besides capacities and will go a long way to make vocational education a part of the larger vision of holistic education.

Era of specialisations

Further, as part of a holistic education, the ideas of imaginative and flexible curricular structures enable creative combinations of disciplines for study.  NEP provides for rigorous research-based specialisation by giving opportunities for multi-disciplinary work including industry; opportunities for internships with local industry/businesses-houses; actively engaging with the practical side of learning, all of which are bound give impetus to entrepreneurship.

 Focus on technical education

Also, the focus on technical education is decisive for India’s overall growth and development, and is well addressed in NEP.

The technical sectors like engineering, technology, management, architecture, town planning, pharmacy, hotel management and catering technology continue to demand well-qualified individuals and hence closer collaboration between industry and institutions to drive innovation and research is actively encouraged in NEP.

Since these domains will become part of the multi-disciplinary education and curricula will be renewed with a focus on opportunities to engage deeply with the field making, the education will be entrepreneur oriented.

 To aid the above, NEP proposes the National Committee for the Integration of Vocational Education (NCIVE) so as to promote integration of education with industry and the National Research Foundation (NRF) to seed, grow, and facilitate research by funding competitive proposals by liaison between researchers and relevant branches of industry.

Integrating vocational elements

Soliciting inputs from national and international entrepreneurs and practitioners; integrating vocational education programmes into mainstream education, complementing with a parallel voluntary and more business-focused approach; creating entrepreneurship oriented programmes with expanded high-quality opportunities that can make effective use of these qualifications would allow breakthroughs to be brought into NEP and/or implementation in an optimal fashion. Besides, as part of multi-disciplinary education, the focus will be on research & innovation by setting up start-up incubation centres, technology development centres, centres in frontier areas of research, greater industry-academic linkages. These initiatives will go a long way in preserving and promoting entrepreneurial acumen and will also vastly strengthening the existing entrepreneurial sector.

 The idea of infusing entrepreneurship into education has spurred much enthusiasm in the past few decades. A myriad of effects has been stated to result from this, such as economic growth, job creation and increased societal resilience, but also individual growth, increased engagement and improved equality. Putting this idea into practice will however, pose significant challenges alongside the stated positive effects. However, the NEP provides a novel path to the education system so as to make India a global knowledge-power and economic-giant.

Execution

 No doubt, the NEP is ambitious and futuristic for radical transformation of job seekers into job creators, but much of its success depends on its execution. The execution of NEP in true sprit will make the Indian youth accelerated and affianced for creating value to other people based on the knowledge acquired by them, and this will further fuel deep learning and illustrate the practical relevancy of the educational system.

To conclude, NEP aims to usher producing prolific, productive and contributing citizens for building an inclusive, equitable, and self-reliant India.

 — The writer is Assistant Professor, University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh