Pre-primary education system in India lacks infrastructure, says Sisodia

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia said the age-old state-level education law is a major hurdle in truly implementing the new National Education Policy (NEP), and without a new legal framework, it will only happen. a set of guidelines. “The recommendations of the recently launched National Education Policy are progressive, but an enabling legal framework is needed to realize its full potential. There are several provisions in various state education laws that are restricting the proper implementation of the NEP. are,” he said.

In addition, the minister noted that the pre-primary education system in India lacks infrastructure, is not well regulated, and varies within states. “There is a need for a new legal framework for the NEP to align it with the forward-looking provisions of NEP 2020. Otherwise, the policy would not be able to overcome the constraints created by the existing legal provisions and age-old practices,” he said. added.

Sisodia noted that unlike the national capital, the condition of 95-98% of government schools across the country is extremely poor except for a few ‘showpiece schools’ in every state.

“We talk about inclusive education in our policies, but do teachers guarantee that every child has a place to learn at their own pace when they complete the curriculum in the classroom. Can we teach our future teachers about their B.Ed. We need to ensure that when teachers enter the classroom, they are not only masters of their subject, but adopt the principles of inclusive development as their core character. as deeply assimilated” Sisodia said.

“In the NEP, the first five years have received the most attention. This is in line with the idea about early childhood education globally. But the pre-primary education system in India is very chaotic and varies from state to state,” he said.

“Anganwadi focuses on zero to six years, play schools have their own standards and first grade has a different norm. Whereas the new education policy focuses on basic education in the first five years. In such a situation, we need to create an implementation framework that really lays the foundation for lifelong learning,” he said.

The minister said the central government’s National Achievement Survey (NAS) for schools should not be just a high-stakes test. “In India we have a traditional three-hour annual examination process which decides the future of the children. This puts a lot of pressure on the schools and puts pressure on the students to clear the exams.”

“I fear that NAS is also shifting along the same lines, where achieving high scores in NAS has become the priority of the state education departments. This will put additional pressure on the students.” He added, “The government should also look at the structure of NAS and look for new evaluation procedures.”

With inputs from PTI.

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