1-Aug-2022: Education in Mother Tongue
Section 29(f) of Chapter V under Right to Education Act, 2009 clearly states that, “medium of instructions shall, as far as practicable, be in child’s mother tongue.”
Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the domain of the States/UTs. As envisaged in para 4.11 of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, is to be the home language/mother tongue/local language/regional language. Thereafter, the home/local language shall continue to be taught as a language wherever possible.
The NIPUN Bharat Mission of the Government of India through its Mission Implementation Guidelines suggests that teaching learning process and development of teaching learning material should be done in mother tongue. Similarly, Vidya Pravesh- a three-month play-based school preparation programme for Grade-I and NISHTHA FLN (Foundational literacy and Numeracy) have also re-emphasised the same.
As per Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2020-21, there are 28 languages in which teaching learning is going on in grades (1-5). The languages are as follows:
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, English, Bodo, Khasi, Garo, Mizo, French, Hmar, Karbi, Santhali, Bhodi, Purgi.
During the formulation of NEP 2020, a large number of consultations were held with different stakeholders including State/UT Governments, Government of India Ministries, Members of Parliament, public etc. The Draft NEP 2019 was uploaded on Ministry of Education’s website to elicit comments and suggestions from the various stakeholders. Further, letters were written to the States/UTs Governments and Government of India Ministries inviting their views and comments on Draft NEP 2019. An Education Dialogue with Hon’ble MPs of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Karnataka & Odisha was organized in the month of July and August, 2019. Around 2 lakh suggestions on the Draft NEP were received from various stakeholders. A special meeting of CABE was organised in September, 2019 to discuss Draft NEP. 26 Education Ministers of various States and UTs, representatives of States and UTs, Members of CABE, Heads of Autonomous Organizations, Vice Chancellors of Universities, attended the meeting along with senior officials. A meeting of Parliamentary Standing Committee was held in November, 2019 to discuss the Draft. Accordingly, based on all feedback/comments received, NEP 2020 was finalized and the same had been approved by the Union Cabinet on 29.07.2020.
1-Aug-2022: School Innovation Council
School Innovation Council (SIC), an initiative taken by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MIC) was launched on 1 July 2022 and has been introduced to all schools of all the states including Rajasthan. It is a council of teachers, students, and experts from industry and academia to conduct round the year activities for students and teachers on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, monitored through the SIC portal of the MIC, to record the influence at the ground level.
SIC will enable mindset change, awareness, and training on Ideation, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, design thinking, Intellectual Property Rights, start-up finance, and HR among teachers and students. It will also enable the ranking system for schools on the level of innovation-oriented activities.
To implement the SIC council in all schools across the nation, SIC portal has been developed where schools can register themselves. All registered schools are encouraged to perform innovation-related activities as per the SIC Calendar Activities that includes Leadership talk, motivation sessions, webinars, sessions, awareness, boot camps inviting innovative ideas from the student, developing the prototype, and national level exhibition of the best prototypes etc. (for complete info refer section XI in SIC document under download section, https://sic.mic.gov.in/).
NEP 2020 envisages the education system to include a ‘light but tight’ regulatory framework to ensure integrity, transparency, and resource efficiency of the educational system through audit and public disclosure while encouraging innovation and out-of-the-box ideas through autonomy, good governance, and empowerment. Besides, NEP has a provision for School Complex Management Committees for more robust and improved governance, monitoring, oversight, innovations and initiatives by local stakeholders.
In order to strengthen the mentoring capacity of teachers for cultivating and handholding innovative and ingenious ideas from students, the School Innovation Ambassador Training program (SIATP) was launched through online Mode. Under SIATP, teachers undergo 72 hours of training, and those who qualify all the five modules i.e. 1. Design Thinking & Innovation; 2. Idea generation & Idea hand-holding; 3. Finance/Sales/HR; 4. Intellectual Property Rights(IPR); 5. Entrepreneurship and Prototype/ Product Development; with a minimum 50% as passing marks are recognized as “Innovation Ambassadors” which makes them competent to nurture the young school students on Ideation, IPR, product development, design thinking, problem-solving, critical thinking and skills of entrepreneurship.
1-Aug-2022: Technical Courses in Regional Languages
In alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has initiated technical education in Indian Languages in the year 2021-22. AICTE has also introduced “AICTE Technical Book Writing and Translation” in 12 Indian languages leading to enhanced GER, enhanced learning outcomes, strengthening innovation and research capabilities. In the year 2022-23, eight (8) engineering disciplines are being offered in regional languages. The lower level of enrolment of students in technical courses in regional languages is attributable to this initiative being in nascent stage.
To assist students from regional language background, AICTE has introduced Induction Program which imparts communication skills and gets students acquainted with the culture of institution.
To further augment employment prospects of students, AICTE has formulated its internship policy for students of Technical institutions which mandates internship for all UG/ Diploma students. Also, all AICTE approved institutions shall run Skill Development Courses, student developmental activities such as Research Park, Start-up Centre, Innovation Club, Entrepreneurship, Industry institute cell etc. As a part of the government’s response to enhance employability, AICTE is implementing programmes to enhance employability of students, such as,
- Entrepreneurial Degree/Diploma Program under National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF)
- National Employability Enhancement Mission (NEEM)
- Employability Enhancement Training Program (EETP)
- Opening of ITIs in spare capacity of AICTE approved institutes
- The Urban Learning Internships Program (TULIP)