New Education Policy 2020: A comparative analysis with existing National Policy of Education 1986

The NEP 2020 was approved by the Union Cabinet of India on 29 July, 2020. The Ministry of Human Resource Development formed a committee headed by former ISRO Chairman Dr K Kasturirangan, who outlined the vision of India’s new education system. The New Education Policy addresses challenges faced by current education system such as Quality, Affordability, Equity, Access and Accountability. NEP 2020 envisions an India-centric education system that contributes directly to transforming our nation sustainably into an equitable and vibrant society filled by knowledge and by providing high-quality education to all. This article emphasizes the major differences between the current education policy i.e., New policy education of 1986 and New education policy of 2020. An attempt had been also made to figure out the challenges in the existing policy that led to the emergence of NEP 2020. A brief analysis has also been made on the highlights of the NEP 2020. The data has been collected through various sources i.e., journals, reports, print media and various other government websites. This article is purely based on secondary data. Though NEP 2020 has new targets to be achieved by 2035, nevertheless it has its own merits and limitations and the efforts have been made to highlight them. As NEP 2020 is one of the most promising policies which have been introduced and the question relies on to what extent the objectives of the policy will be achieved.