New Education Policy 2020: Easier board exams, regional language push in school

Cabinet on Wednesday approved the New Education Policy 2020. Union Ministers for Information and Broadcasting (I&B)Prakash Javadekar and Human Resource Development (HRD) and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, made the announcement in the national capital. Major reforms were announced in the school education. Elaborating on the reforms, School Education Secretary Anita Karwal said at a briefing, “Board exams for classes 10 and 12 will be continued, but will be reformed to eliminate the need for taking coaching classes”. She further said, “Board exams will be redesigned to encourage holistic development and will also be made easier by testing core capacities and competencies. All students will be allowed to take board exams on up to two occasions during any given school year -- one main examination and one for improvement, if desired. All students will take school examinations in classes 3, 5, and 8 which will be conducted by the appropriate authority”. A per the new policy, the 10+2 structure of school curricula will be replaced with a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to age groups 3-8, 8-11, 11-14 and 14-18 years respectively.