Mr Eric Wei, Asia Pacific General Manager, ViewSonic – Asia Pacific
The Ministry of Education unveiled New Education Policy with its goal to modernise and transform India’s education system. Our understanding is that the emphasis of this policy is on E-learning and the goal is to universalize the pedagogy from pre- to secondary school in addition to digitising it. When schools and colleges were forced to close and conduct business online due to the pandemic, the entire world including India realised that a transition to online learning was necessary.
As someone rightly said, “Necessity is the mother of invention”; the challenges experienced during Covid-19 and the desire for E-learning provided educational institutions with an exponential pace of technology advancement. The learning process has been changed by technologies like blockchains, smart boards, handheld computers, adaptive computer testing for student progress, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other advancements that go beyond the scope of all prior comprehensive studies.
The national education policy can be termed as a landmark initiative for the 21st Century, built upon the five fundamental principles of access, equity, quality, affordability, and accountability. With a vision to make pre-primary education universally accessible and prioritize foundational literacy and numeracy throughout primary schooling and beyond by 2025, this policy aims to provide comprehensive education for all. By implementing these reforms, the goal is to enhance the quality of education in schools while simultaneously fostering increased public investment in education and empowering the use of technology.
We are at the cusp of huge transformation and about to participate in and witness path breaking changes in ways we learn, we teach, the way we govern schools, the way we use technology in education. With the implementation of this policy, school education will take a huge turn and learning will become more experiential, holistic, integrated, character building, discovery oriented, learner – centred, flexible and best of all, joyful.
Digital teaching approaches have lately entered the education system as a result of technological advancements. Let’s examine the digital strategies the government will employ to improve education through NEP 2023. By presenting fresh and original thoughts on the topic, this forum will seek to improve digital teaching techniques in various institutions. Technology will be included into the various classroom procedures to improve them.
Key Focus under the New Education Policy
- Online Assessment and Exam
- Digital Infrastructure
- Online and Digital Education
Online Assessment and Exam – The focus is on implementing the assessment framework with encompassed design of competencies, analytics and standardized assessment. This helps in evaluating various abilities and characteristics such as critical thinking and conceptual clarity of a student.
Digital Infrastructure – It is clearly stated in the National Education Policy that schools should not overlook the importance of face-to-face and in person learning while promoting digital learning and education. On the other hand, government has planned a huge budget to develop the digital infrastructure such as developing blended learning models where enhanced technology can be used for teaching.
Online and Digital Education – Appropriate use of technology at all levels of education – to improve student learning outcomes, teaching learning and evaluation processes at scale; enhance educational access to disadvantaged groups; increase availability of data to enhance understanding of how children learn and streamline educational planning, administration and management.
It is necessary to recognize the significance of the Indian education ecosystem, which has been in existence for several years. With this new education strategy, we hope to create an educational framework that is profoundly rooted in Indian culture and actively contributes to India’s development into a thriving equitable knowledge society. By ensuring access to high-quality education for all, India has the potential to emerge as a global knowledge superpower. The government’s commitment to education reform, accompanied by the decision to increase the expenditure on education from 1.7% to 6% of the country’s GDP, is a commendable step towards achieving this goal.
