The Challenge Of Flexibility

The Indian Express     9th September 2021     Save    
QEP Pocket Notes

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.
QEP Pocket Notes