The New Education Policy's is getting off the blocks. Although there were clouds of doubts hovering over its implementation, the preparation for the same has been done at least on the government level. Applications have been invited from the institutions which provide pre-primary education. The policy will be implemented maybe within a month after scrutinising the forms however, the new policy stresses on students' evaluation. It is a crucial question of how the students' performance will be evaluated. The students were promoted till Class 8, so the annual examinations had become a formality anyway. Hence, it is necessary to bring clarity over what parameters will be used to grade the students.
The bigger question perhaps is regarding the pre-primary schools for which the registration of the school wasn't compulsory. There were no rules for such schools to compulsorily have particular facilities and as a result, many play-schools came up in various villages. Since the majority of the parents today are working, baby-sitting their children is an issue. Such play-schools have become a handy solution for the same. The Directorate of Education has asked the information of these children for their registration. There is confusion over whether the minimum facilities have been made mandatory for these pre-school institutions.
Another important matter is whether the teachers are qualified. Thirdly, the question is the medium of instruction. NEP has provision to encourage vernacular languages and this could give rise to the debate of which medium of instruction should be implemented at pre-primary level. The government provides grants to private Marathi and Konkani primary schools. There are other government run schools in the State as well where the medium of instruction is neither Marathi nor Konkani. If one starts private school on a similar basis then will they also be given grants by the government?
While this confusion lingers, nobody has paid attention to bigger entanglement of evaluation of grades. It should be taken into consideration that NEP is not merely limited to a graduation degree of four years or the registration of the pre-primary schools. The examinations carry an important value and if the students clear them with good marks then it increases their confidence. This also prepares them to face tougher examinations in the future. Hence the examinations that students have to answer during their school life are important ones. If these exams do not exist then students' qualifications will never be tested.
There is a narrative that it is possible to evaluate how much a student has learned from his teachers only through answering the examinations of various subjects. There is also another group who believe that the school exams are given overt importance. It's because of the second narrative that the examinations till Class 8 have been currently cancelled. The neighbouring state of Maharashtra has now decided to conduct annual examinations of Classes 5 and 8 once again. This has set off a discussion in educational circles, whether the same should be done in Goa too. The thought is NEP has scope for quality and the examinations are required to measure the same. There are also various opinions on how to conduct the examinations too. It makes no sense to pass or fail the students based on the score until and unless the method of examination is not changed. Until the time students' attentive intelligence, creativity and the skill to utilise their learning does not transform into their day-to-day life, the real evaluation will never happen. In the current method of examination, the students are asked only the information and nothing beyond that. Hence, it is a test for the Department of Education regarding the issue of evaluation. There should be no two opinions about nixing the system of simply pushing the students up to Class 8. However, unanimity is needed over how the evaluation should be done. All the students from first till eighth standard do not have to answer the examinations currently and are promoted to the next class as per their grade. So, there is no loss of educational years for them. According to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, students cannot be failed up to Class 8. It has to be kept in mind whether this will require reconsideration while implementing NEP. Or it should be at least studied why the neighbouring Maharashtra felt the need to conduct examinations by amending the Act. Of course, the educational capability of the students must be tested and for that, it has to be considered whether the examination is the sole way to do so. It cannot be ignored that NEP has birthed all the above questions.