National Education Policy 2020 and its implementation in the academic year 2023-24

The world is undergoing rapid changes in the knowledge landscape. With various dramatic scientific and technological advances, such as the rise of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, many unskilled jobs worldwide may be taken over by machines, while the need for a skilled workforce, particularly involving mathematics, computer science, and data science, in conjunction with multidisciplinary abilities across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, will be increasingly in greater demand. With climate change, increasing pollution, and depleting natural resources, there will be a sizeable shift in how we meet the world’s energy, water, food, and sanitation needs, again resulting in the need for new skilled labour. The growing emergence of epidemics and pandemics will also call for collaborative research in infectious disease management and development of vaccines and the resultant social issues heightens the need for multidisciplinary learning. There will be a growing demand for humanities and art, as India moves towards becoming a developed country as well as among the three largest economies in the world. Education thus, must move less towards content, and more towards learning about how to think critically and solve problems, how to be creative and multidisciplinary, and innovate, adapt, and absorb new material in novel and changing fields. Pedagogy must evolve to make education more experiential, holistic, integrated, inquiry-driven, discovery-oriented, learner-centered, discussion-based, flexible, and, of course, enjoyable. Education must build character, enable learners to be ethical, rational, compassionate, and caring, while at the same time prepare them for gainful, fulfilling employment.

This National Education Policy 2020 is the first education policy of the 21st century and aims to address the many growing developmental imperatives of our country. This Policy proposes the revision and revamping of all aspects of the education structure, including its regulation and governance, to create a new system that is aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st century education. It is based on the principle that education must develop not only cognitive capacities – both the ‘foundational capacities ’of literacy and numeracy and ‘higher-order’ cognitive capacities, such as critical thinking and problem solving – but also social, ethical, and emotional capacities and dispositions.

Quality Universities and Colleges: A new and forward looking vision for India’s Higher Education System

Higher education plays an extremely important role in promoting human as well as societal wellbeing and in developing India as envisioned in its Constitution. Higher education significantly contributes towards sustainable livelihoods and economic development of the nation. As India moves towards becoming a knowledge economy and society, more and more young Indians are likely to aspire for higher education.

The policy’s vision includes the following key changes to the current system:

• moving towards a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education;
• moving towards faculty and institutional autonomy;

(c ) Internationalization of HE

• Emphasis Regional Language in Education including Technical Education
• revamping curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and student support for enhanced student experiences;
• governance of HEIs by high qualified independent boards having academic and administrative autonomy;

VES College of Arts, Science and Commerce being an autonomous institute since 2020-21, will be able to implement this policy to the greatest extent and achieve its goals of a multidisciplinary and flexible education system that allows students to learn and grow in a holistic and independent manner with each student getting the freedom to learn and develop skills that they desire.

NEP Implementation in First Phase:

The implementation of the National Education Policy in the academic year 2023-24 stresses on two aspects primarily,

• Multiple entry/exit points giving the student the freedom to learn at their own pace, and
• Multidisciplinary model of learning, allowing the student the flexibility to take courses from different streams according to their choice and the demand of the field which they wish to undertake in the future.
• Multiple Entry and Multiple Exit options: Students from this year onwards do not have to do a three year bachelor’s degree mandatorily. The bachelor’s program is now divided into four years. The student can exit the program at the end of even semester and make reentry at the odd semester depending on their requirement.

The structure of the Three/Four-year bachelor’s degree programme allows the opportunity to the students to experience the full range of holistic and multidisciplinary education in addition to a focus on the chosen major and minors as per their choices and the feasibility.

epending upon how many years of the program the student completes, they will be given the following degrees:

At the end of every even semester, the student has the freedom to leave the course. If they wish to do so, they will be asked to take up an additional skill-based course on the completion of which they will be awarded the above mentioned degree.

If the student continues with the course for four years, they get an Honours’ degree which is equivalent to doing one year of post graduation.

NEP 2020 at VESASC

As the college gears up to implement the New Education Policy (NEP) in the next academic year we promise to impart holistic multidisciplinary knowledge in all streams. The students will have the choice to learn all the skills they wish to acquire for their future goals. This new holistic and choice based system of learning will provide the students with complete growth and skill building which will prepare them to face the challenges of the future. We at VES provide multiple platforms and opportunities to the students to nurture their skills and talents and polish their personalities to become responsible citizens of our great nation. The ideals of VES combined with the principles of NEP promises to provide the best platform for all students entering our institution.

We have an edge over others, at the Vivekanand Education Society’s College of Arts, Science, and Commerce since we have all the streams under one roof in addition to practical training for music, sports, and many other talents. To make the teaching-learning process exciting and relevant, it is crucial to have a learner-centric strategy, successful learning outcomes, and engaging pedagogy. With autonomy, we have the opportunity to create our own curriculum and evaluation plan in accordance with the requirements of our stakeholders, providing them with more satisfying and desirable teaching-learning experiences. At the heart of NEP is our vision of creating an enlightened society through holistic education. With the help of numerous disciplines, we have easily combined a flexible curriculum structure, and we have made baskets for students to select the subjects they are passionate about. Almost all departments have made an effort to include additional soft skills, ability enhancement courses and creative vocational subjects. Additionally, we have post-graduate divisions in each of our streams, allowing us to offer 3- or 4-year degree programs based on the preferences and needs of our stakeholders and students.

Credit Structure for UG and PG courses at VESASC

• NEP 2020 at VESASC will be implemented in essence as per the RD Kulkarni report and the  guidelines given in Maharashtra Government GR dated 20^th April 2023 and 16^th May 2023 for UG and PG Courses.

         Institutional Development Plan