The First Education Policy Of The 21st Century

The Ministry of Education, Government of India (formerly, Ministry of Human Resource Development), officially published the National Education Policy, 2020 ("the Policy") on July 30, 2020. Hailed as the first education policy of the 21st century, the Policy is the third of its kind since the first National Education Policy (1968) and replaces the second National Education Policy, which was introduced 34 years ago in 1986 by the then Rajiv Gandhi government. Envisaging revolutionary changes through a bottom-up approach, it is already attracting both support and opposition from various quarters. The measure of its success will be clear only when the actual implementation of the Policy reforms comes up against the forces of bureaucracy and politics. Our attempt here is only to understand what the Policy seeks to achieve, followed by the reforms it introduces to achieve the envisaged goals.