On International Day of Education CSF brings together leading Ed-sector experts to deliberate on primary education reforms outlined in NEP 2020

New Delhi : On the occasion of International Day of Education, Central Square Foundation (CSF), a leading education non-profit, hosted a forum to engage with experts from the education sector on key learning-outcome based reforms outlined in the National Education Policy 2020. This forum was organised to find a common pathway and develop an actionable understanding among key stakeholders from government & civil society to achieve the objectives regarding furthering the learning outcomes among school children, as outlined in the NEP 2020 document.

The theme for this year’s International Day of Education is “to invest in people, prioritize education.” This is in line with the primary objectives highlighted in the NEP 2020 document, which lays heavy emphasis on achieving universal access to quality education for all levels of schooling, from pre-primary to Grade 12. While in India, the number of children enrolled into school education shows an encouraging trend at 98.6% of children within the age group of 6 – 10 years being enrolled in schools, the learning outcomes of children at the primary level leaves much to be desired. The findings from the recent ASER 2022 survey indicated the worst fears coming true about the learning loss from the COVID 19 pandemic and its impact on learning outcomes of children between the ages of 4-9 years.

The forum kickstarted with a Keynote Address delivered by Ms Shaveta Sharma-Kukreja, CEO, Central Square Foundation, on the need for greater salience on ensuring that learning outcomes for all children is met as per the vision of the NEP 2020. This was followed by a message from Dr Priyadarshini Joshi, Senior Project Officer (Research), UNESCO, who has been one of the chief authors of the Report, “Non-State Actors in Education: Who Chooses? Who Loses?”. The Report presents an insightful view on the relationship between policy makers and non-state actors in terms of choices they make with regards to equity and freedom of choice.

One of the key objectives that has been highlighted in the NEP 2020 is the need to develop a regulatory structure at the system level, for ensuring school performance is tracked & measured. This is a critical component towards ensuring that learning outcomes of all children are met in a timely manner as outlined by the NEP 2020 document.

The opening panel discussion for the forum, on the topic, “The New Regulatory Architecture Envisioned by the NEP”, focused on the need for States in setting up an independent regulatory authority called the State School Standards Authority, which would allow for greater agency and autonomy to States to adopt the regulatory framework and ensuring school performance is measured. This has been identified in the guidelines of the NEP 2020 as a critical component of education system reform.

The second panel on “Setting a Visible Learning Marker to improve Learning Outcomes” brought to light how school quality is seen currently as a function of inputs, but not as an impact of its outcomes on student learning. It showed how a learning quality marker for the school can be developed using a competency-based census assessment, which can potentially quantify the output of the school in the critical primary classes itself.

”While India has made substantial improvements in ensuring access to education to each child by providing new infrastructure and massive recruitment of teachers, etc. the need of the hour is to progress from access to education to ensuring delivery of quality education for all children. Effective and transparent approaches to deliver on school, system and student level outcomes have been correctly identified as key systemic drivers of improvement by the NEP 2020. Alongside steps being taken to implement NEP 2020 in letter and spirit, these systemic drivers should also be prioritized. This forum will serve as a pivotal platform for key stakeholders in the education sector to deliberate, conceptualize and build a common approach towards achieving these objectives,” said Mr Harish Doraiswamy, a Project Director with Central Square Foundation.

The event saw a healthy participation from leading voices representing government institutions & bodies such as Mr Ayush Prasad (IAS), CEO – Zila Parishad, Pune; Dr Joseph Emmanual, Central Board for Secondary Education; and notable experts from civil society, which included panelists like Dr Parth Shah, Centre for Civil Society; Ms Bhuvana Anand, Trayas; Dr Priyanka Sharma, Australian Council for Education Research and Ms Vyjayanthi Sankar, Centre for Science of Student Learning.

The forum is designed to create a deeper understanding about the NEP 2020 guidelines among education ecosystem stakeholders and identify a common frame of reference and roadmap through knowledge sharing and discussions. In the coming months, this forum would further look to engage with wider state level stakeholders to create salience around the NEP 2020 guidelines.