The Challenge Of Flexibility

Context: Academic Bank of Credits, multiple entry-exit options, will call for large changes in higher education.

Importance of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020

• Promoting flexibility of curriculum: It identified that our education system is rigid, structured and expensive. Thus, it provides for the Academic Bank of Credits and Multiple Entry and Exit.
  • They can facilitate students choosing their learning path to attain a degree, diploma or certification with multiple entries- multiple exit options.
• Aims for student-centric learning, customised for each student’s strengths, needs, skills, and interests.

Issues with the flexibility provisions of the NEP 2020

• Limited flexibility:
  • Even if a student can, she may not be able to tailor her degrees as she wishes, as the control over the nomenclature of the degree rests solely with the UGC.
  • Regarding flexibility in the choice of subjects, if 50 % of the curriculum must be carried out within the degree-granting institute, then there is actually little flexibility left for the student.
  • A similar concept of a “Meta University” was attempted in 2012 that failed to take off despite a UGC regulation, primarily due to the silo mentality and ego hassles of the heads of institutions.
• Difficult to implement: The National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) (having similar provision to vocational education) took almost a decade to come to fruition with nothing tangible to show for it.
  • If a student chooses to drop a year or two into a degree programme, the issue of his employability remains unresolved.
• Restricted to government portals: Courses only to those available on SWAYAM, NPTEL, V-Lab, etc., are eligible for credit transfer and credit accumulation.
  • This defeats the purpose of offering quality education to anyone who wants it; limiting the number of students registering for a course in a certain university also defeats the purpose of accumulating credits.
• Bureaucratic hassle: Without the use of technology to authenticate and store digital records in a distributed system, proving the authenticity of credits awarded by various institutions can be a nightmare.
  • Getting a migration certificate from one university to another or simply getting transcripts of one’s own marks, even from an established university, can be onerous.
• Costly affair: It implies huge budgetary allocations in terms of improving the teacher-student ratio from the present 1:30 to 1:5. The faculty will need to be reoriented to become guides and mentors, from just teachers.
  • Besides improving record maintenance, the conduct of credible assessment, transfer of credits and award of degrees with similar quality levels across institutions will require substantial funds.
  • With the total central education budget constantly falling by 4.14 % in 2014- 15, 3.4 % in 2019-20 and by 6 % in 2021-22, this seems to be a tall order.

Way Forward: It is an idea whose time has come. In times to come, the level and quality of its implementation will be an indicator of the health of higher education in the country.

• Efforts required from every stakeholder: To succeed in the NEP’s goal of transforming curriculum and pedagogy, great commitment will be required from every stakeholder, from the Centre and UGC to VCs, faculty and non-faculty staff.
• Experimenting a trial: On a pilot basis through the much-talked-about Virtual University, where universities and other institutions in India become collaborators, creating their own or sourcing content from SWAYAM, Coursera, EdX or Udemy and other similar providers.