The National Education Policy 2019 and its Implications to Higher Education in the Commerce Discipline
Submitted by,
Lalitha.M.K
PhD(Commerce)
1910075
Submitted to,
Dr Anil Joseph Pinto
Associate Professor
We are today living in a dynamic world in which change is constant. One has to constantly update their skills to grow and also for survival. Also, many of the developing economies today are concentrating on building "knowledge-driven" economies for the optimum utilisation on their human resources. One of the most common yet the most effective ways to do so is to update the educational sector according to the needs and demands of the industry. In other words, to integrate education with the demands of the industry to increase the skilled labour which would in-turn help in the growth of the GDP and quality living of the people in that particular nation.
The 'National Education Policy' is India's initiative to integrate the industry and the educational sector to match the demands in the market today. It covers elementary education to secondary and higher education among the people of India both rural and urban. The first National Education Policy was introduced in 1968 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government. Next, in 1986 by the then Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi's government. Recently, in 2017, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Dr Krishnaswami Kasturirangan. This committee submitted a draft National Education Policy in 2019. The committee has recommended a number of changes to the existing education policies. The draft National Education Policy 2019 is based upon the principles of access, equality, quality, affordability and accountability of the current education scenario and policies.
According to AISHE report 2017-2018, there has been an increase in the gross enrolment ratio for higher education especially in the 'commerce and management' domain. According to the New Education Policy (NEP) 2019, the higher education institutions is proposed to be categorised into three types. Firstly, 'research intensive and high quality teaching' institutions where in research is given primary importance. Secondly, institutions with high quality teaching with some contribution to research and lastly institutes with high quality teaching for undergraduate education. 'Research' plays a major role in a good 'learning and teaching' approach. Teachers have to research to teach and students have to research more to learn. When you look at it from a domain specific view, the commerce field, specifically, is subjected to a lot of change be it with taxation laws, management process changes, changes in the perspective of finances of both of companies and investors. This necessitates commerce academicians to be up-to date with current scenarios which would in-turn help the students to learn beyond text books for better learning. The solution to each of these situations is only 'research'. More research creates more knowledge creation. Therefore, research intensive institutions only propagates the right 'teaching and learning process'. This would be further enhance commerce by making undergraduate courses research intensive. The NEP 2019 has further proposed an apex body 'the national research foundation' to facilitate the funding for research to facilitate quality research.
Another important proposal of the NEP 2019 is the 'liberalisation of education' with a broad exposure to multidisciplinary courses. For example, while studying finances or market behaviour, one has to understand the cognitive relations to human behaviour to make more informed judgements. Therefore, in the commerce domain one cannot just study finances or market behaviour individually. It must be coupled with psychology, sociology and such other fields for a better understanding. Hence, liberalisation of education and an inter-disciplinary and multidisciplinary approach coupled with research will increase the quality of higher education. Also, the students will be market ready, which will in-turn bridge the gap between academia and industry.
Benjamin Franklin once said, " Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." This quote talks of the importance of active learning. This can be achieved only when there is a change in the way knowledge is taught and also when there is a change in the way knowledge is learnt. For this, there must be conducive environment to learn. This conducive environment can be created by proactive learning. For this, teachers must adopt new pedagogy to emancipate knowledge in the right direction. Choice based credit systems ensure more flexibility and innovation in academia. According to the proposed draft, students are assessed not just on the academic aspects but also on broad capacities and dispositions. For example, in Christ (deemed to be university) certain subjects in commerce are assessed entirely on the basis of Continuous Internal Assessments. Students are given innovative and practical assignments related to the subject and assessed on the basis of these assignments. This would facilitate a better learning with practical-industry ready knowledge. Another important aspect is the creation of a learning environment for the students be it in academic, financial or emotional support (counselling) to attain better outcomes. In the commerce field, active learning with the right pedagogy, would stimulate better learning experiences.
The India Skills report 2018 highlights that 50% of the applicants appearing for the interview do not meet the skills requirement. Approximately only 20% of Engineering graduates in India are employable as per employability reports of private assessment agencies. Their employability regarding the latest and futuristic technologies is much lower. The employability of non-engineering graduates is much lower – around 5% as per these reports. The demographic advantage that India possesses, would be futile if a large proportion of them cannot get into productive employment. Therefore, it can be seen that there is a huge gap between employability and the skills of graduates. In a job interview conducted, a commerce graduate was asked to explain basic journal entries and the graduate fumbled. This leaves us with the question if our future generations are equipped with the right skills to take informed decision in the commerce field. Many companies have reported such similar cases. If academia and industry is not integrated, though India has a booming and an employable population, growth would be jeopardised. Therefore, NEP 2019 proposes that energised, engaged and capable faculty must be employed to bridge the gap between employability and skills gap. This policy highlights the importance of faculty in the success of higher education institutions. Hence, to ensure quality and engagement of faculty NEP has proposed recruitment on the basis of academic expertise, teaching capacities and dispositions to public service. Faculty recruitment and development, career progression and compensation management to be a part of every institutional policy. Also, faculty are given academic freedom for research and also to make curricular choices for their courses.
Another important aspect of the NEP 2019, is highlighting the importance of good higher education governance and responsive regulations to encourage excellence and public-spiritedness to higher education. This policy also highlights the importance of decentralisation of power and to avoid conflicts of interest. Uniformed regulator for higher education across the country, the National Higher Education Regulatory Authority, Higher Education Grants Council, New General Education Council, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, State Councils for Higher Education and such other councils and committees would ensure uniform and quality education across the country.
The National Education Policy 2019 highlights on accountability, credibility and transparency. Commerce is a very dynamic domain. The technology advances, trends change, business grow, industrial behaviour and consumer behaviour patterns change. These lead to changes in corporate policies, laws and regulations of the land, changes in business models etc. In-turn this would require to update the skills that are delivered to make learning more integrated to the industry as this would help in better job creation. Therefore, NEP 2019, would help in bridging the gap between academia and industry especially in robust field like commerce.
References
(2017-18). AISHE report .
Ministry of Human Resource Development. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://mhrd.gov.in/higher_education
(2019). National education policy .
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