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For learner centric education, National Credit Framework (“NCrF”), National Higher Education Qualification Framework, Academic Bank of Credit (“ABC”), multiple entry/exit schemes etc. have been introduced. So far, more than 1600 universities and colleges & more than 2.75 crore students have registered on the ABC platform. Going forward, there will be a need for disseminating information, handholding support to educational institutions and for enhancing the functionalities of the portals.
To ensure access to high quality education with equity and inclusion, courses are being offered in Indian languages and several books have been translated in Indian languages. However, several more are to be translated, published and distributed.
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To provide flexibility, more than 300 universities have adopted digital learning SWAYAM platform and about a million students have earned certificates through proctored exams this year. There would be a need to enhance the quality, features and capacity of the platform to be able to provide an enabling support to even larger number of students.Samarth is an open source, open standard enabled process automation engine to provide Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) solutions for universities and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It is already being used by over 2700 universities & HEIs. There will a need to allocate resources to constantly upgrade Samarth and to extend support to users. Similarly, there would be a need to enhance functionality and capacity and to provide ongoing support to users for other portals like the online portal for internships.
As a part of initiatives towards internationalisation of Indian higher education, the UGC has issued guidelines for set-up of campuses of foreign universities in India. Also, several Indian HEIs are setting up campuses abroad. For example, IIT Madras campus has become operational in Zanzibar- Tanzania and IIT Delhi is setting up a campus in Abu Dhabi. These HEIs may require budgetary support.
To include Indian Knowledge System (IKS) into curriculum, there is a need for development/ upgradation of curricula, training/orientation of faculty and for empanelment of artists and artisans–in–residence in HEIs.
‘Study in India’ program would require international campaigns to attract students to India. It would also require establishing degree equivalence and setting up facilitation centres in HEIs.
The NEP 2020 aims to make higher education multi-disciplinary and aims to provide high quality holistic education. This would require flexible curricula, creative combination of subjects and creating multiple pathways, establishing equivalence, and facilitating national and international mobility. Courses would need to be made credit based and restructured into certificate, diploma, degree and honours degrees. Further, there is a need to incorporate various dimensions of learning i.e. academics, Indian Knowledge System (“IKS”), research, vocational skills and experiential learning. All the above would require significant efforts and resources.
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The NEP aim to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (“GER”) in higher education including vocational education from 26.3% (2018) to 50% by 2035 would require investments and capacity addition. Similarly, if the goal to have at least 50% of learners in the school and higher education system exposure to vocational education by 2025 is to be achieved, vocational education capacity will need to be enhanced. Further, efforts will be required to meet the aspiration of having at least one large multidisciplinary HEI in or near every district by 2030 and of having multidisciplinary universities and colleges establish education departments carrying out research in education and running B.Ed. courses. Also, as affiliated or single stream colleges evolve into degree awarding autonomous colleges, constituent colleges of universities, or become part of multi-disciplinary cluster, and as large universities evolve into Multi-disciplinary Education and Research oriented Universities (“MERUs”), there would be need for additional resources.
To achieve the above NEP goals, the resource requirements would also be felt in private HEIs. It is expected that the government would create funding mechanisms for such universities and colleges.
In the school education segment too, there are several major interventions which have been proposed. Integrating Anganwadis with elementary schools and including a “Preparatory Class” or “Balavatika” before Class 1 would require additional infrastructural facilities. It would also require building teacher capacities and hiring additional teachers in elementary schools. Similarly, extending health check-ups and growth monitoring that are available in the Anganwadi system to preparatory class students would require budgetary support. The PM Poshan scheme would need to be restructured to provide coverage from the earlier grade.
It will be of interest to see how the government prioritizes different initiatives and schemes in school and higher education in the upcoming budget and how the above expectations are met.
The author is Partner, Deloitte India
