Perspectives on Influence of Draft National Educational Policy on Psychology as a Discipline
August 20, 2019
A Brief Introduction of the NEP :
The new education policy (2019) is designed to meet the changing dynamics of the requirements in terms of quality education, innovation and research. This policy aims at making India a knowledge superpower by equipping students with the necessary skills and knowledge. It also focuses on eliminating the shortage of manpower in science, technology and industry. The draft policy is built on the following pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability. A restructuring of higher education institutions with 3 types of higher education institutions was proposed_____
Type 1: focused on world class research and high quality teaching
Type 2: focused on high quality teaching across disciplines with significant contribution to research
Type 3 : high quality teaching focused on undergraduate education
This will be driven by 2 missions – mission Nalanda and mission Takshashila.
There will be restructuring of undergraduate programs like B.Sc, B.A B.com B.voc of 3 to 4 years duration and having multiple exit and entry options.
A new apex body Rashtriya Shiksha Ayog is proposed to enable holistic and integrated implementation of all educational initiatives and the programmatic interventions. The body will also coordinate efforts of State And Centre. The National Research Foundation an apex body is proposed for creating a strong research culture and help build research capacity across higher education .The 4 functions of this would be standard setting, funding accreditation and regulation will be separated and conducted by independent bodies.
National Higher education regulatory authority (NHERA) will be the only regulator for all higher education including professional education. The policy proposes to create an accreditation eco system led by a revamped NAAC . Professional standard setting Bodies for each area of professional education was proposed.
UGC is to be transformed to Higher education Grants commission (HEGC)
The private and public institutions will be treated at par , and education will remain a 'not for profit activity'.
While the implications of the growth of bloated and hierarchical bureaucracy will remain, the report makes repeated assurances of 'autonomy' in education. Qualifying that 'autonomy' does not refer only to "reduction of public funding" (pg 204) but to the "freedom to innovate, to compete, to co-operate, to govern more locally, to optimise resources…to break silos, and to excel…" (pg 204), and that "autonomy that will be widely granted as a result of this policy" (pg 250), the report seeks to infuse new blood and spirit into the education system.
Besides the above, committee recommended several new policy initiatives
- Promoting internationalization of higher education
- Strengthening quality open and distance learning
- Technology integration at all levels of education
- Facilitating adult and lifelong learning
- Enhancing participation of underrepresented groups
- Eliminating gender, social category and regional gaps in higher education outcomes.
- Promotion of Indian and classical languages and setting up these new national institutes for Pali, Persian , Prakrit were proposed. Indian institutes for translation and interpretation has been recommended
Implementation of 3 language formula (Students in Hindi speaking state should learn a modern Indian language, apart from Hindi and English Non Hindi speaking states should learn Hindi along with regional language and English) was dropped after protest against it in many states.
An Outlook on NEP's Influence On Psychology Domain In India:
Psychology as an academic discipline made a new beginning in India in the first decade of this century. Many research shows that Western theories and concepts still constitute the core of research and teaching programmes in most of the Indian universities. For almost a century, academic psychology in India has continued to be an alien discipline. In the beginning of the last Century, psychology was imported lock-stock-barrel from the West and was first implanted in 1916 in Calcutta University. The Western model of research and teaching provided the basis on which Indian research grew for a long period. For Indian psychologists trained in the western traditions, it has been a long journey to turn towards their own heritage and take Indian concepts and theories to understanding Indian social reality.
Indeed, in this long history, concerns have been voiced from time to time to align psychology with contemporary social issues, so as to meet the challenges of rapid socioeconomic and global changes. Looking back, one gets an impression that psychology in India has come a long way to find its roots in its own native wisdom, though it still has to cover much ground to become a science of Indian origin. The multidisciplinary approach in NEP might facilitate to meet this gap. Studying a topic from viewpoint of more than one discipline would facilitate in engaging in multidisciplinary research. By teaming up with complementary research groups for example (law and forensic psychology/social psychology and sociology) one can combine the collective expertise and gain synergy. This will result in increased chances in original high impact research and potential to get more output with less work. Going multidisciplinary does not mean leaving behind our own specialism. For multidisciplinary project to work collaboration has to be found which is capable to deliver results without being too painful. A common mistake is to seek out people with the same expertise as ourselves which is natural as those members of community we are familiar with. The challenge is to find complementary expertise outside our comfort zone and team up with individuals who we feel comfortable to work with.
Again demerit is just that most researchers have strong egos and significant fraction of scientific collaborations break down because of incompatible personalities and expectations from group leaders. Conflicts usually boil down to disagreements about who gets the corresponding authorship at the end of the ride and who is the principle investigator on the grant. Multidisciplinary projects may be run by specialists who are firmly positioned in their respective disciplines. However actual research requires a new type of flexible junior scientists who can bridge the gaps by combining the expertise and skills from different fields. These new people have to be trained and this is where the added value of multidisciplinary research really pays off as it produces new scientist with unique skill sets which are important in future in research and development career in industry and academia. Multidisciplinary science requires a certain mindset, openness for collaborations and capabilities to set aside ego and share credits. In order to facilitate this institute should encourage interaction between different disciplines by organizing events where scientists can meet and share ideas in an informal setting. As India moves towards becoming a true knowledge society and economy - and in view of the forthcoming fourth industrial revolution, where India aims to lead and where an increasing proportion of employment opportunities will consist of skilled jobs of a creative and multidisciplinary nature. With regard to this, the psychology departments in universities should have close ties with many other departments on campus such as biology, law, medicine, law and business and must aim to increase participation in various interdisciplinary programmes on campus.
The there is a dearth of institutes offering courses in psychology especially in north-east region with growing number of students more institutions are needed in order to pursue higher education with varying specialization. It is not known how many colleges and universities offer psychology courses and how many psychologists are professionally active. There are no data which official agencies, like the University Grants Commission, Indian Council of Social Science Research, or Department of Science and Technology can furnish. Policy makers should focus on increasing number of government or central universities with psychology as a subject for bachelor degree, master degree, Mphil (RCI registered)/Phd and should focus on bringing many other specializations apart from clinical /social psychology/industrial psychology/ counseling psychology.
There is slow and gradual increase in problem oriented and culture sensitive research carried out by a small minority of front runners who are constrained by the lack of intellectual and professional support, infra-structure deficiencies ( Like decline in library facilities due to prices of books and journals, exchange rates, electric based information is not reaching properly in most Institutions) , and inadequate financial and human resources. Together they cause daily hassles which hardly leave any energy in many for sustained research of high standard. The roots of these impediments to four major predisposing factors: Pervasive poverty, excessive political interference and government control, poor Infrastructures and social values and practices in India.
The new policy of the government together with the awareness of Indian, psychologists of the societal demands and their roles, it is hoped, are likely to create a conducive condition for faster growth of "appropriate and proper" psychology in India.
Part 2 chapter 9 of higher education states its vision of improving the quality of higher education.
Main objective being Revamp the higher education system, create world class multidisciplinary higher education institutions across the country - increase GER to at least 50% by 2035. When speaking of higher education, the government is planning to bring in a single regulator - National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA). With this initiative, all higher educational institutions will become multi-disciplinary and will be able to facilitate high-quality teaching, research, and service to the learners. In Masters, more focus would now be given on research as currently in Indian universities the courses lack research-oriented curriculum. Doing so will nurture the research skills of students and release them from pursuing M.Phil. The educational policy stresses on research, suggests allowing private institutes to have access to Govt fund but does not address the tax treatment of educational services. NRF will ensure that the overall research ecosystem in the country is strengthened with focus on identified thrust areas relevant to our national priorities and towards basic science without duplication of effort and expenditure, the incentive for the private sector to invest, grow and stand on quality parameters needs to be clearly articulated.
Gross enrollment can be possible if they work towards increasing employment opportunities and make education accessible to the masses as envisioned in the constitution that would make India democratic, just and socially conscious, self aware, cultured humane nation (equality, fraternity, justice, liberty) serve as a hub for developing ideas innovation that enlighten individuals and propel country forward socially ,culturally, artistically, scientifically, technologically and economically. Compulsory liberal arts training will help India double the number of entrants in higher education_ GER_ from current 25.8to 50%, in next one –and –a –half decades. But contrary to to established policy wisdom , it suggest a route to this expansion in a large scale merger of colleges and universities in the country – bringing down the total number of higher educational institutions from around 50,000 at present to maximum of 12,300 over the next two decades . It then assumes an imposible uniformity of local social condition across institutional contexts and predicts a doubling of student intake by quartering the number of institutions. Already the number of institutions offering psychology is handful and compressing the number of institutes would adversely affect the enrollment of students in this discipline.
Another new development should be focussed on the expansion of teaching of psychology in various professional courses in the fields of engineering, agriculture, management and medical sciences. Although all five Indian Institutes of Technology have departments of Humanities and Social Sciences of which psychology is a constituent subject with Ph.D. programmes; and four Indian Institutes of Management have departments of Organizational Behavior or Psychology being taught in undergraduate classes, particularly in Home Science and Extension Education departments in 26 agricultural universities and 28 agriculture institutes or In medical colleges (psychology is part of a course on Preventive and Social Medicine). But as noted by Atal (1976), most of these courses in agriculture and medical are taught by junior staff, research assistants, and demonstrators and have low priority. The situation has not changed much till date. Heavy teaching, and no incentive for research had a telling effect on the research output of some universities (one being Mysore University dept of psychology) which must be addressed practically.
In view of the requirements of the 21st century, the aim of a quality university or college education must be to develop good, well rounded, and creative individuals. It must enable an individual to study one or more specialized areas of interest (clinical psychology/cognitive psychology/Legal psychology/ Forensic psychology/social psychology /animal psychology etc ) at a deeper level, while at the same time building character, ethical and Constitutional values, intellectual curiosity, spirit of service, and 21st century capabilities across a range of disciplines including the sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, as well as professional, technical, and vocational crafts (Psychotherapy training courses).
Psychology subject should be tweaked for Indian context. Revision of psychology syllabus will be a step in the direction of creating a synergy between Indian social reality and current disciplinary developments. There are vast differences in existing psychology courses across universities as regards the coverage of issues, content, cultural sensibility as well as societal relevance. The need to revamp is felt by most teachers and practitioners. Restructuring of the curriculum is a continuous process and each university is supposed to undertake this exercise. Efforts must be made to get inputs from the faculty. The Bachelor, Master's, MPhil and PhD courses must be drafted, debated and finalized for psychology discipline.
In most universities psychotherapy as a part of the clinical psychology syllabus remains neglected since it lacks practical exposure of the technicalities involved in the therapeutic procedures for which there is a dearth of well trained psychotherapist and counselors who practice illegally without RCI registration.
The social science disciplines, including psychology, were introduced in India as a Euro-American import. The theories, issues and problems were borrowed from a different context. Most prevailing courses help to learn more about the cultural practices, norms and nuances of the western world. But human conduct has cultural roots.
The reality experienced in [our] society is mapped with the help of alien concepts because the western world has been the reference point. In addition to being misleading, this has resulted in emulation, loss of creativity and poor contribution to the growth of knowledge. The dialogue with society and culture, which is a must, is missing.
In coming years, the need to bring the cultural context to the centre must be repeatedly emphasised in academic discourse. Universities must offer separate courses in cross cultural psychology, cultural psychology and indigenous psychology. There is an emphasis on the use of Indian material and culturally-contextualised learning. Several international academic movements have started towards indigenisation of the discipline. There is growing scholarship focusing on culture-specific disciplinary developments. Japan, China, South Korea – each has its own notions of self, society and family and scholarship based on them. Philippines saw a movement to establish indigenous theories and practices. Even many Canadian psychologists do not accept American theories. The debates over these issues form a genuine academic concern which the policy makers need to address.
The idea of 'graded autonomy' introduced by UGC in 2018_ and insisting on hierarchy of 'institutional performance' through ranking or rating _ has been veted by the draft. The tiering of HEI's into TYPE 1(research universities) TYPE 2 (undergraduate colleges) will result in different fortunes for different institutional settings. TYPE 3 institutions are largest in number; the projected increase in their share of public funding is disproportionately lower than the two other types. Although the draft NEP repeatedly cautions against autonomy being interpreted as reduction in state funding, the structural reforms it initiates go on to do just that. The 2019 NEP failed to scrap the UGC and set up a puppet regulatory authority in higher education commission of India bill,2018 has been reinstated in both structure and spirit. The policy draft favours a separation of regulatory powers from funding powers in higher education . But over all such powers will reign an apex commission- the Rashtriya Sikhsha Ayog __ headed by PM himself, and making appointments to all statutory bodies within the educational sector. By enshrining the leader of the ruling party as sovereign point of reference in matters of education, the draft hints about political –ideologies reins over knowledge.
With bold proposals like a significant increase in public expenditure on education and delegation of 'autonomy', the draft looks promising but also glosses over several pressing issues.. While such political oversights are the limitations of the report, the call for making 'interconnectedness of education' and the recognition accorded to liberal arts education which the report itself identifies as education which combines art, music, language, orality, ethical and moral reasoning, constitutional values, socio-emotional learning, and health and safety is to be appreciated and indicates that the committee has attempted to go beyond seeing education as a merely instrumentalist transaction. Incentive for private sector to invest grow and stand on quality parameters need to be clearly articulated . The draft lacks operational details and does not offer insight into how the policy will be funded
Conclusion :-
It is high time that academicians and policy makers come together to think and reflect about the current situation and engage meaningfully and take a fresh look at the goals and objectives of higher education in psychology. Shaping social and cultural concerns of individuals, groups and collectives with a deep sense of rootedness in our own soil with a global outlook could be considered a critical goal of higher education in social sciences in general, and psychology in particular. To this end, educational institutions have the prime responsibility of shaping the cognitive, affective and behavioral ability of the student and build responsible and responsive citizens.
References:
- https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/best-universities-psychology-degrees
- Atal, Y. (1976). Social sciences: The Indian scene. New Delhi: Abhinav Prakashan.
- https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/6918481_Psychology_Final-Report-24-Nov-16.pdf
Author: Kashyapi Thakuria
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