Implementation plan to help make the NEP 2020 work

EDUCATION/ GOVERNANCE

Topic: General Studies 2,3:

• Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education, Human Resources 
• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Implementation plan to help make the NEP 2020 work

Context: The National Education Policy 2020 has a vision to transform the Indian education landscape. It relies on a significant commitment for policy implementation from all stakeholders

There are four contributors to policy failure 

• Overly optimistic expectations
• Implementation in dispersed governance
• Inadequate collaborative policymaking 
• Vagaries of the political cycle

Thus, there is a need to develop a robust policy support programme and institutional mechanism, if we are to be serious about implementing any policy. 

Below is the five-point implementation plan that can be considered to help implement NEP.

1. PM’s Task Force on Higher Education Reforms

• The successful implementation of NEP requires different types of interventions. 
• It includes coordination and cooperation between the Centre and states; legislative interventions and augmentation of financial resources with involvement of inter-ministerial discussions; and regulatory reforms.
• The PM’s Task Force on Higher Education Reforms can be an advisory body comprising experts from public and private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to help the PM understand and appreciate the bottlenecks, and ensure time-bound implementation with fixed accountability.

2. National NEP Implementation Standing Committee

• This committee will consist of select vice-chancellors/directors of universities/institutes. 
• The Committee, located within the Ministry of Education, will be chaired by the education minister and the member-secretary will be the education secretary.
• It should have ex-officio members of all major regulatory bodies to remove the hurdles faced by HEIs in the implementation of NEP.
• This Committee will be tasked with creating and monitoring the NEP Implementation Plan in a time-bound manner. 
• It will have specific powers and functions, including thematic sub-committees and regional committees. 

3. National Education Ministers’ Council 

• It will consist of Education Ministers of all states and UTs, chaired by the Union Minister for Education
• The Council will serve as a forum to discuss and address implementation issues, and navigate through the diverse perspectives of state governments.

4. Integrating Institutions of Eminence (IoE) with NEP

• In the budget 2016, the then Finance Minister promised to provide “an enabling regulatory architecture” so that “10 public and 10 private institutions” would emerge “as world-class teaching and research institutions. This led to the establishment of IoEs
• Today, the vision of IoE needs to be integrated with the NEP implementation plan, and IoEs need to be empowered with more freedom, flexibility, autonomy and resources. 

5. National Higher Education Philanthropy Council 

• This council can be chaired by the Education Minister with private sector participation.
• Nearly 70 per cent of Indian HEIs are private, and more than 70 per cent of Indian students study in private HEIs. We must build on this reality to raise financial resources that are critical for the establishment of more private HEIs.
• The Philanthropy Council could help promote a fundamental re-imagination of the tax structure to incentivise potential donors for donating to specified funds that promote establishment of Universities/Colleges

Conclusion

For successful implementation of the NEP, we will need to 

• Create stakeholder incentives
• Formulate instruments in the form of legal, policy, regulatory and institutional mechanisms
• Build reliable information repositories
• Develop adaptability across HEIs, regulatory bodies and government agencies
• Develop credibility through transparent actions and participation of all stakeholders
• Develop sound principles of management

Connecting the dots:

• Right to Education Act
• Operation Digital Board