Key Highlights of New Education Policy 2020

New Education Policy was approved by Union Cabinet on Wednesday, July 29. Following are the key highlights of new education policy:

The HRD Ministry will be now called as the Education Ministry.
High performing Indian universities will be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries. Top 100 Foreign colleges will be allowed to open their branches in India
Sanskrit will be “mainstreamed” with strong offerings in school - including as one of the language options in the three-language formula - as well as in higher education.
Engineering institutions, such as IITs, will move towards more holistic and multidisciplinary education with more arts and humanities. Students of arts and humanities will aim to learn more science.
The undergraduate degree will be of either 3 or 4-year duration, with multiple exit options.
Vocational education will be integrated into all school and higher education institutions in a phased manner over the next decade. By 2025, at least 50% of learners through the school and higher education system shall have exposure to vocational education.
The extant 10+2 structure in school education will be modified with a new pedagogical and curricular restructuring of 5+3+3+4 covering ages 3-18. Currently, children in the age group of 3-6 are not covered in the 10+2 structure as Class 1 begins at age 6. In the new 5+3+3+4 structure, a strong base of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) from age 3 is also included.

There will e- content in regional language apart from English and Hindi. E courses to be in eight major languages not just English and Hindi
Students of class 6 and onwards will be taught coding in schools as a part of 21st century skills.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) will offer a high-quality common aptitude test, as well as specialized common subject exams in the sciences, humanities, languages, arts, and vocational subjects, at least twice every year for university entrance exams.
Prior to the age of 5 every child will move to a “Preparatory Class” or “Balavatika” (that is, before Class 1), which has an ECCE-qualified teacher.
The nutrition and health (including mental health) of children will be addressed, through healthy meals and regular health check-ups, and health cards will be issued to monitor the same.
Curriculum content will be reduced in each subject to its core essentials, and make space for critical thinking and more holistic, inquiry-based, discovery-based, discussion-based, and analysis-based learning.
No more rigid break up of Arts, Commerce and Science. Students can choose a combination of courses.
Education sector to get 6% of GDP, earlier it was 1.7%
Use of schools/ school complexes beyond school hours and public library spaces for adult education courses which will be ICT(Information and communication Technologies)-equipped when possible and for other community engagement and enrichment activities