Policy is fine, but how will it be implemented?

A new National Education Policy (NEP), the third since independence, was released by the government recently, explained Ritika Chopra. "In school education, the policy focuses on overhauling the curriculum, 'easier' Board exams, a reduction in the syllabus to retain 'core essentials' and thrust on 'experiential learning and critical thinking'." Laudable but are there trained teachers to impart such learning when only a tiny fraction of candidates appearing for the Central Teacher Eligibility Test actually pass? The Annual Status of Education (ASER) reports regularly highlight poor standard of education of children, especially in government schools. Government school teachers are ordered to carry out other tasks which have nothing to do with teaching, including census duties, supervising elections and filling forms on behalf of students. Teachers are required to supervise midday meals for students which leaves little time for teaching. Despite so many problems, 54% of parents would encourage the children to become teachers when they grow up, a study found. "The NEP has many excellent recommendations," wrote Gurcharan Das, but he can give it only one and a half cheers, instead of three. Because, "One out of four teachers is absent in state schools across India and one in two, who is present, is not teaching," only 10% pass the eligibility test, students are not learning, our government has banned the PISA test because we came second to last, and even the poor are abandoning government schools for private schools, which may not be that good. "India's education landscape is extremely unequal," wrote Roshan Kishore. "Those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder are more likely to be studying humanities than a professional course." "A student from the top 20% of society is ten time more to be studying in an English medium school than someone who belongs to the bottom 20%." "In Kashmir, even government schools are English 'medium', that is, students are taught everything in English, right from primary school," wrote Shivam Vij. "Interestingly, even India's poorest and socially most deprived parents are doing all they can, including spending beyond their means, to send their children to English-medium schools," found Kishore. "A new goddess has recently been born in India . She's the Dalit Goddess of English," reported the BBC in 2011. The NEP recommends teaching in mother tongue till class five. Not only do the poor suffer more during a pandemic because of loss of earnings and inability to access healthcare, but poor children lose out on education because they do not have access to digital education and may have to drop out of school to supplement family income, wrote Prof Amit Kapoor and Chirag Yadav. Online teaching is not accessible to most Indian children because, while 23% of rural households in Kerala have internet at home, the number is a pitiful 2% of rural households in Andhra, wrote Nikita Kwatra. The NEP is a lot of words. But, will our children learn?