( Doxa, Episteme , Gnosis)
A Cartography for Ascent of Man
Thou shall not ever bear the weighty millstones of introjections across thy fragile shoulders nor shall thee henceforth ever be a downward-looking footprint- follower in thy self-designed exalted pursuits and ventures’.
Let us, amidst the semantic resonance of the promises prefacing the advent of a new era in the critical domain of education in India, outrightly italicize the flutter of the wings and flights of the fantasy across the ‘promised decades’ of the illumined paths of learning.
The concepts of Doxa, Episteme and Gnosis have been foundation of philosophical thought in Greece since Aristotlean Era. The said expressions, translated in English, read as under:
Doxa: broadly described as a common belief or popular opinion
Episteme: philosophical term that refers to principled system of understanding
Gnosis: Experience based knowledge gained through multiple means including metaphysical experiences
The biggest challenge of political leadership in our diverse, impoverished and multicultural society has been to inculcate the spirit and strength of self-leadership amongst of our citizenry and to emerge from the deep and dark ‘culture of silence’, a phrase particularly evolved by Paulo Friere, in his well acknowledged treatises on Education to symbolize the passive and sterile mental conditions of the illiterates, whom he treats as oppressed sections of the society. In the unfathomable depths of this ‘culture of silence’, the unfortunate millions still remain submerged.
A national education policy holds promise to trigger and support the socio-political processes of enlightenment which are designed to culminate in energizing and strengthening the intellectual faculties of the individuals drowned in aforementioned ‘culture of silence’.
Thus Education policy of the State has to necessarily focus on learning paradigms beyond the normal scripts of pedagogy, predominantly based on the concepts of three R’s or its upgraded version of Four R’s.
From the rudiments of literacy and numeracy, the promised journey has to be steered in the high seas towards a destination- ‘Universal enlightenment’. The distance which an individual is duty-bound to cover on his own and with his own wherewithal is phenomenally great. State, in pursuit of the exalted ideals, also remains committed to facilitate the human pursuits on the high tides of curiosity and experiential learning.
National Education Policy 2020 now supersedes, after lapse of about three silent and sterile decades, the preceding National Education Policy 1986. In the year 1986, the focus of the State remained on literacy, which indeed was a critical priority in India- a large Democracy afflicted by massive and rampant illiteracy to the extent of 56.4% as per the census of 1981. Even today, we are hosting 26% of illiterate population (statistics pertain to the persons of seven year and above)
As per the 1986 policy, there was no literacy map for the children below 5 years of age. Present policy of 2020 draws a map under the nomenclature ‘Universal Access for Children from 3 years to 6 years’. The universal access signifies free, safe, high-quality ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) Module to be implemented, inter alia, through already existing Anganwadis (pre-school) and Balvatikas (pre-Class I stage). This Early Childhood Care and Education is further subdivided into two stages. The foundational learning curriculum designed for ECCE contemplates flexible multilevel play-based and enquiry-based learning activity for children in the age group of 3 to 6 years as well as for the children in the age group of 6 to 8 years.
The Policy envisages that every child will move to preparatory class or Balvatika before completion of 5 years of his age. The implementation of this Early Childhood Care and Education Module of the Education Policy is to be jointly carried out by four separate ministries namely Ministry of HRD (now named as Ministry of Education), Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The aspirational priorities for building schools, evolving monitoring mechanism to focus on the learning outcomes, bringing back the dropouts (with a specific target to bring back two crore ‘out of the school’ children), developing alternative centers for innovative education and peer tutoring are also lucidly mapped in the Education Policy. SDG(Socio-economically Disadvantaged Group) goals, inbuilt in the policy, are to ensure that all children in schools are retained until completion of secondary education.
The present bi-sectional system of 10+2 is now re-structured in four quadrants described as 5+3+3+4. The extant system envisaged 6 to 16 years on the ladder of first 10 classes and 16 to 18 years on the next two critical steps of education.
In the present Policy, the foundational course commences from pre-school Balvatika or Anganwadi to a blithesome triennial concluding with second class in its first lap. Thus children from 3 years to 6 years and again in the age bracket of 6 years to 8 years shall remain under an umbrella of foundational course. The next leg of journey is scheduled as per the policy to commence from age of 8 years to 11 years (class 3 to class 5) under the nomenclature ‘preparatory course’. Again the third triennial, known as ‘middle course’ will cover the age group of 11 to 14 years (Class 6 to 8). Finally the class 9 to 12 covering the students from 14 years to 18 years will now be focused and deeply assessed level of ‘secondary course’.
Modules are in the process of being comprehensively developed to ensure step by step ascent on the steps and steeps of enlightened life of the individuals. Thus from the incipient baby-steps amidst a child-friendly ambience of multi-level play-activity-based learning (foundational) to the next chartered course of play, discovery, activity and interaction-based learning (preparatory) stages, the policy holds a grand promise of exposing the ‘inwardness’ of the young generation to the bright rays of light to initiate the blossoming of multiple talents for ‘critical thinking’ .
Identically from middle stage of schooling to secondary stage of schooling , children will be tactically skilled to benefit from experiential learning regimes in sciences, mathematics, Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. Policy envisages that children must , by inner strengths, climb to the highest level of multi-disciplinary study at the last and critical stage of schooling, designed to promote ‘critical thinking’ amongst learners .Thus through the transformational paradigms laid in the NEP 2020, the dark ‘culture of silence’ afflicting the Indian society is poised to metamorphose into a ‘culture of vibrancy’.
The Education Policy initiative is not only designed to effectively and continuously monitor the learning outcomes of foundational literacy and numeracy, but it is highly focused on development and implementation of 21st century skills in teaching and learning as well as in the equally vital regime of paradigms of assessment.
The Policy envisages common standards for all public and private school education and effective governance in the domain of education.
As regards infrastructure, while school buildings are planned to be constructed by joint efforts of government, non-government and philanthropic organizations, to meet the infrastructure deficits, a resource sharing strategy of the school complexes has also been introduced as a new initiative to upgrade the existing infrastructure, as a measure of synergies and optimal utilization of existing resources.
As regards higher education, there is a structural shift to four year open-ended Bachelors degree in lieu of extant three year closed-door monolithic degree course for graduation. The four year Bachelors degree course is no more a closed-door monolithic academic model. It is a well-ventilated sanatorium with multiple exit options. Thus the quit option for the students stands purged of the bane of punitive consequences. Under the new policy, If a student quits after one year of graduation course, he still gets a diploma. If he completes three years, he gets Bachelors Degree. If he completes the complete course of four years, he gets a Bachelor degree with a right to pursue higher research-based studies.
All under graduate courses are now planned to be credit-based and an academic bank of credit is to be digitally installed to store the academic credit of every student. The credits earned by a student will remain available to the exiting students and upon re-entry even at any belated stage, such students will not be required to re-earn the credit already available qua the pre-cleared subjects in the data bank.
Masters degree will be for one year for the students who do not want to pursue research after post-graduation. Those who intend to pursue research project, will have to spend two years to complete their research-oriented Masters degree. However, M Phil course now stands dispensed with.
The Policy 2020 loudly proclaims its own vision as under:
- Equitable and Vibrant knowledge society by providing high quality education to all.
- Develops deep sense of respect towards fundamental rights, duties and constitutional values, bonding with one’s country and a conscious awareness of one’s rule and responsibilities in a changing world.
- Instills skills, values and dispositions that support responsible commitment to human rights, sustainable development and living and global well-being thereby reflecting a truly global citizen.
Another glowing feature of the Policy is to develop a National Repository for high-quality teaching and learning resources on a platform called ‘Diksha’. The Policy also plans building up of school libraries besides leveraging digital libraries for free access to all students.
The contents, creativity and dynamics of the curriculum for three transformational steps, nay, revolutionary leaps, of implementing the aspirational projects of ‘experiential learning’, ‘interactive learning’ and ‘critical thinking’ at school level will be a litmus test for the efficacy of the design to overcome the challenges and to actualize the aspirations of 21st century India. However, the policy document discloses that the well-drafted scripts of learning and pedagogy would be implemented fully in the academic year 2022.
The long-awaited issue of reduction of syllabus only to the minimal level of core essentials stands lucidly addressed in the policy document. The interactive teaching methodology is designed to be juxtaposed with tactical dilution of text book dependency, initiatives of guided promotion of questions by students and well-monitored peer group teaching.
The extant silo-structured subject combinations, segregating sciences from humanities and resting on self-styled classifications between curricular, co-curricular , extra-curricular, sports, vocational courses are being obliterated by the Policy. It will not only widen the choices for the learners in the shape of subject combination, but will a much-needed ‘thrills’ in the learning processes.
The transformed culture of assessment introduces continuous tracking, specially designed software, establishment of National assessment centre, self-assessment and peer assessment concepts, National testing agencies.
The policy acknowledges that ‘successful ratings’ through a fair and transparent assessment procedure is bound to boost the morale of learners, especially in the formative years of life. On the contrary the pain and humiliation of initial failures is a critically de-motivating factor. The learning means and methods of the students at least upto 5th grade are additionally supported by informal but meaningful support by the family and social circles of the students. The policy does not encourage introduction of English language upto 5th Standard. The social realities in the nature of absence of any informal support group in the personal circle of the students, besides natural and community-supported proficiency in the local language which would operate as a facilitator to grasp the concepts are cited as a reasons for dispensing with English upto 5th standard. The States/Union Territories are empowered to decide the three languages to be taught to the children.
The B.Ed. course is also now structured as four year course, while separate two year and one year courses to meet some need-based requirements co-related to other qualifications etc shall also continue.
Another meaningful focus in the Policy is under the nomenclature ‘Empowerment of teachers’. The said aspect, introduced for the first time in the Education Policy, is intended to be achieved through the following vital steps
- A Technology-based comprehensive teacher-requirement planning, forecasting exercise to be conducted in each State.
- Career growth is contemplated for the teachers within the Policy parameters even within a single school scenario where teachers will be eligible for promotions from foundational course to preparatory course to middle course and to the secondary course, depending upon their educational qualifications and experience.
- National Professional Standards for teachers are to be introduced by the year 2022.
- Improving service environment of the teachers by better infrastructure in the schools
- Teachers to have more autonomy in choosing aspects of pedagogy in the class room teaching
- Academic leadership positions to be made available for the teachers.
- Teacher professional development programs to be introduced inter alia on the basis of merit based tenure track system and minimum 50 hours of continuous professional development.
- Mandatory for every Ph.D. student to undergo one year teaching module
The Policy envisages stringent action against non-performing or under-performing teacher education institutes in India.
The NEP 2020 was initially drafted by T.S.R. Subramaniam Committee (former Cabinet Secretary). However, Doctor K. Kasturi Rangan was also engaged for a fresh look of the Policy. However, Doctor K. Kasturi Rangan, radically changed the Policy and presented an independent report which was finally accepted. It will be relevant in the historical perspective to bear in mind that in 1968, the first Policy draft was framed on the basis of Kothari Commission Report. Thereafter, in 1986, another National Education Policy was adopted by the Government. In 1992, a revision in the said Policy of 1986 was approved and implemented.
Another important aspect of this Policy is to grant autonomy to the Educational Institutions. As per Policy, the extant affiliation procedure is to be totally dispensed with, over a period of time and Educational Institutions will, under proper surveillance, upgrade themselves into autonomous multidisciplinary institutions.
The words of Nani Palkhivala, an eminent jurist and renowned advocate, culled out of his address to the University students, emphasizing the value and role of education in human life, are relevant, especially while perusing the contents of National Education Policy 2020. He aptly says ;
“Education has been called the technique of transmitting the civilization. In order that it may transmit civilization, it has to perform two major functions; it must enlighten the understanding and enrich the character.
The two marks of a truly educated man, whose understanding has been enlightened, is the capacity to think clearly and intellectual curiosity…If this habit of thinking has not been inculcated in you, you would be well advised to acquire it after you leave the college….Intellectual curiosity would enable the students to continue, nay, to intensify the process of learning after he has come out of the comfortable cocoon of university and is thrown into maelstrom of life…..”
In a famous masterpiece of Freidrich Engels- ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’, the conceptual reality of Ubermensch is beautifully spun by philosophical genius of Engels, to epitomize the whole range of philosophical notions of ‘self-mastery’, ‘self-cultivation’ and ‘self-direction’ propounded by Nietsche , the following meaningful words, relevant in the paradigms of education, etrnally resonate ;
“O man, take care!
What does the deep midnight declare?
“ I was asleep – from a deep dream I woke and swear:-
The world is deep, deeper than the day had been aware.
Deep is its woe-
Joy- deeper yet than agony;
Woe implores: Go!
But all joy wants eternity-
Wants deep, deep eternity.’
In the journey of human life, the skill to traverse the terrains of curiosity is equivalent to the art of survival. Education, in its highest form and through its toughest and most rigorous regimens , instills in an individual a Dionysian spirit to master the wonderful art of survival in the emerging realities of the infinite world.