Emphasis on Skill Development Through New Education Policy 2020

Abstract

The New Education Policy 2020 formulated by Union Government in 2019 and came in 2020 was a straight forward, well-defined and positive change for a developing country like India as high quality education is the key to bring any country on global platform in terms of skill development, socio-economic development, social justice and equality, scientific and technological advancement, and in maintaining and taking forward culture at national and global level. The New Education Policy will lead to standard higher education through interdisciplinary universities and autonomous, self-governed colleges. The NEP 2020, introduce several changes in the Indian Education System from foundation to higher level education aiming to make “India, A Universal Hub in knowledge and skill Superpower”. By converting or transforming the education industry market from learning based model to a skill based model. The announcement of New Education Policy 2020 after 34 years was an expected by many & the changes that taken place through smiles on many faces and led to pull down 10+2 education policy and introduction to 5+3+3+4 education policy. The paper studies various positive and good changes which NEP will bring in the society in form of skill development, employment generation and standard higher education.

Introduction

Introduction: Transforming Indian Education

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, approved by the Union Government, marks a significant shift in India’s education system from a learning-based to a skill-based approach, impacting education at local, state, national, and global levels. It emphasizes holistic development, including confidence, leadership, self-esteem, and problem-solving abilities, while promoting independent thinking in students.

2. Key Objectives of NEP 2020

• Create a future-ready education system aligned with 21st-century needs.

• Integrate sustainable development goals (SDGs) with India's cultural values and traditions.

• Promote vocational training, digital literacy, numeracy, and soft skills.

• Build a comprehensive and equitable education system that reduces academic pressure.

3. Evolution of NEP

• 1968: First policy under PM Indira Gandhi.

• 1986: Second policy under PM Rajiv Gandhi, focusing on access and equality.

• 2020: Third policy under PM Narendra Modi, promoting a knowledge-, skill-, and employment-driven economy.

4. Literature Review Highlights

• Studies analyze NEP’s structural changes and its impact on higher education, research, soft skills, and employability.

• Some research uses qualitative and sentiment analysis, while others rely on primary and secondary data to evaluate effectiveness and public perception.

5. Research Gap

Although NEP 2020 has been extensively discussed, few studies have focused specifically on its impact on skill development using primary data. This study addresses that gap by combining both secondary and limited primary data.

6. NEP 2020: Key Transformations

???? A. School Level:

• Replaces the 10+2 system with 5+3+3+4 structure (ages 3–18).

• Introduces preschool education for ages 3–6.

• Simplifies board exams to focus on core skills.

• Starts vocational education with internships from Class 6.

• Emphasizes foundational literacy and numeracy.

• Promotes mother tongue/regional language teaching up to Class 5.

???? B. Higher Education:

• Target to increase Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) to 50% by 2035.

• Offers 3- or 4-year undergraduate programs with multiple exit options.

• Abolishes M.Phil programs.

• Establishes the National Research Foundation for strong research output.

• Positions IITs/IIMs as global multidisciplinary models.

• Creates a single regulatory body: Higher Education Commission of India (HECI).

7. Research Methodology

• Descriptive in nature.

• Primary data: 30 respondents via questionnaires.

• Secondary data: Journals, newspapers, official websites, etc.

Objectives:

1. To assess the role of NEP 2020 in skill development.

2. To analyze its impact on the educational system.

Hypothesis:

• H?: No significant relationship between NEP 2020 and skill development.

• H?: Significant relationship exists.

8. Key Data & Findings

• 93.3% believe NEP 2020 enhances employment, skills, and knowledge.

• 80% support autonomous education systems.

• 90% favor NEP 2020 over the 1986 policy.

• 30% support the 5+3+3+4 model; others support language instruction, literacy, and vocational education.

• 83.3% agree training/workshops are the best methods for skill building.

• 93.3% feel their skills improved due to NEP 2020.

• NEP is seen as student-centric and entrepreneurial, encouraging startups and job creation.

9. Suggestions

1. Upgrade Anganwadis to support early education.

2. Improve evaluation systems for transparency.

3. Make universities autonomous, multidisciplinary, and self-regulated.

4. Increase research funding.

5. Ensure implementation of technological and infrastructural reforms.

Conclusion

The paper is an attempt to analyse and exam the significance, role and contribution of New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in brightening, shaping, creating, moulding the future of India. NEP 2020 is an well defined, clear cut, pre size, visionary and comprehensive policy which will play a vital role in rebuilding Indian educational system. The policy will bring the Indian economy on a platform which will change that history of Indian education system and will be an inspiration to other countries too. The policy provides a vision for the quality and standard education at different levels, it is based on integrated, self-governed, self-regulated, and interdisciplinary approach of education which gives flexibility to the students to learn according to their choice interest and skills. The NEP 2020 gives emphasis on skill development, entrepreneurship, equitability, digital empowerment, inclusive education, inculcating knowledge and emphasis on both academic and non-academic persuits. The study ends with the conclusion that new education policy will increase the quality and standard of education system by developing overall skills in the students from Foundation level to higher education level.

References

[1] Nandi, A., Das, T., & Halder, T. (2022). A critical analysis of recommendations of nep 2020 to reform teacher education in india. AGPE THE ROYAL GONDWANA RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY, SCIENCE, ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, 3(5), 6-14.Chicago [2] Venkatrao, G. V., & Govind, S. G. (2022). National Education Policy: Reforms in Higher Education. Sumedha Journal of Management, 11(3), 49-53. [3] Singh, M., Saini, M., Adebayo, S. O., Singh, J., & Kaur, M. (2022). Comparative analysis of education policies: A study on analyzing the evolutionary changes and technical advancement in the education system. Education and Information Technologies, 1-26 [4] Ambar, F. A., Qurashi, G. U. D., Tantry, F. A., &Shaksaz, A. R. (2021). A Brief Review Of New Education Policy Of India 2020 And Higher Education. Ilkogretim Online, 20(6), 43054316. [5] Chanchal, R. (2021). 32. New Education Policy 2020 and Teacher Education. [6] Pathak, R. (2021). National Education Policy 2020: Can it improve Faculty Motivation and Academic Outcomes in India. International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science, 3(4), 573-579. [7] Maqsood, A., Abbas, J., Rehman, G., & Mubeen, R. (2021). The paradigm shift for educational system continuance in the advent of COVID-19 pandemic: mental health challenges and reflections. Current Research in Behavioral Sciences, 2, 100011. [8] Mulajkar, A., &Pinamkar, N. (2021). Innovative Implementation Strategies for National Education Policy–2020. Vice Chancellor, 59, 77 [9] Aktar, S. (2021). New Education Policy 2020 of India: A Theoretical Analysis. International Journal of Business and Management Research, 9(3), 302-306. [10] Kumar, K., Prakash, A., & Singh, K. (2021). How National Education Policy 2020 can be a lodestar to transform future generation in India. Journal of Public affairs, 21(3), e2500. [11] Gupta, S., & Garg, S. (2021). National Education Policy–2020: Innovations in Higher Education and Quality Assurance. THEME FOR AIU ZONAL VICE CHANCELLORS’MEET—2020–21, 18, 14. Com, B. (2021). National education policy 2020. [12] Aithal, P. S., & Aithal, S. (2020). Analysis of the Indian National Education Policy 2020 towards achieving its objectives. International Journal of Management, Technology, and Social Sciences (IJMTS), 5(2), 19-41 [13] Kaurav, R. P. S., Suresh, K. G., Narula, S., & Baber, R. (2020). New education policy: qualitative (contents) analysis and Twitter mining (sentiment analysis). Journal of content, community and communication, 12(1), 4-13. [14] García, E., & Weiss, E. (2020). COVID-19 and Student Performance, Equity, and US Education Policy: Lessons from Pre-Pandemic Research to Inform Relief, Recovery, and Rebuilding. Economic Policy Institute. [15] Succi, C., &Canovi, M. (2020). Soft skills to enhance graduate employability: comparing students and employers’ perceptions. Studies in higher education, 45(9), 1834-1847. [16] Jha, P., & Parvati, P. (2020). National education policy, 2020. Governance at Banks, 55(34), 14. [17] Panditrao, M. M., &Panditrao, M. M. (2020). National Education Policy 2020: What is in it for a student, a parent, a teacher, or us, as a Higher Education Institution/University?. Adesh University Journal of Medical Sciences & Research, 2(2), 70-79. [18] Kem, D. (2020). National education policy and inclusion. EPH-International Journal of Educational Research, 4(3), 7-13. [19] Smitha, S. (2020). National Education Policy (Nep) 2020-Opportunities and Challenges in Teacher Education. International Journal of Management (IJM), 11(11). [20] Sontakke, S. G., Kadam, D. B., &Vartale, S. P. (2022). National Education Policy (NEP) 2020: India\'s New and Strong Higher Education Program. Sumedha Journal of Management, 11(3), 18-22. [21] Sarkar, R., & Singh, D. K. (2020). Role of National Education Policy 2020 in Shaping the Destiny of India. EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: EMERGING ISSUES AND THE WAY FORWARD, 79. [22] Verma, H., & Kumar, A. New Education Policy 2020 of India: A Theoretical Analysis. [23] Soy, S. S. NEP 2020: Empowering the Teacher-Opportunities and Challenges. The Impact of National Education Policy (2020) on the Higher Education Sector. [24] Mahmut, Ö. Z. E. R. (2020). Educational policy actions by the Ministry of National Education in the times of COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. KastamonuE?itimDergisi, 28(3), 1124-1129 [25] Dixit, R. K. NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY (NEP) 2020-OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN TEACHER EDUCATION. NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY 2020, 120. [26] Anderson, K. T., & Holloway, J. (2020). Discourse analysis as theory, method, and epistemology in studies of education policy. Journal of Education Policy, 35(2), 188-221. [27] Rabiman, R., Nurtanto, M., &Kholifah, N. (2020). Design and Development E-Learning System by Learning Management System (LMS) in Vocational Education. Online Submission, 9(1), 1059-1063. [28] Civera, A., Lehmann, E. E., Paleari, S., & Stockinger, S. A. (2020). Higher education policy: Why hope for quality when rewarding quantity?. Research Policy, 49(8), 104083. [29] van der Vlies, R. (2020). Digital strategies in education across OECD countries: Exploring education policies on digital technologies. [30] Beede, E., Baylor, E., Hersch, F., Iurchenko, A., Wilcox, L., Ruamviboonsuk, P., & Vardoulakis, L. M. (2020, April). A human-centered evaluation of a deep learning system deployed in clinics for the detection of diabetic retinopathy. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1-12). [31] Bentata, Y. (2020). COVID 2019 pandemic: a true digital revolution and birth of a new educational era, or an ephemeral phenomenon?. Medical education online, 25(1), 1781378. [32] Zajda, J. (Ed.). (2020). Globalisation, ideology and neo-liberal higher education reforms. Dordrecht: Springer. [33] Shutikova, M., &Beshenkov, S. (2020). Modern digital educational environment and media education-platforms for transforming education system. ????????????????, 60(4), 736-744. [34] Plant, G. (2007). Campus 2020: Thinking Ahead. The Report. Access and Excellence: The Campus 2020 Plan for British Columbia\'s Post-Secondary Education System. Ministry of Advanced Education. PO Box 9059, Station Provincial Government, Victoria, BC, Canada Lawson, H. A. (2020). The physical education system as a consequential social determinant. Quest, 72(1), 72-84 [35] Sanubi, F. A., &Akpotu, N. E. (2015). The Nigeria Education System and Vision 20: 2020-A Critical Development Planning Perspective. International journal of Educational Administration and policy studies, 7(2), 26-38. [36] Verger, A., & Bonal, X. (2012). “All things being equal?”: policy options, shortfalls, and absences in the World Bank Education Strategy 2020. In The World Bank and Education (pp. 123-142). Brill. [37] APA Ahmad, M. F. A Critical Analysis of the Development of Research in Education in India. Google scholars education.gov.in (Ministry of Education Government of India) https://www.ijcrt.orghttps://mgmu.ac.inhttps://www.sciencegate.apphttps://www.researchgate.nethttps://en.m.wikipedia.orghttps://www.drishtiias.comhttps://blog.teachmint.comhttps://leadschool.in

Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Prof. Krishna Gupta, Khushboo Verma. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.