NEP 2020 and India’s Unfolding Education Crisis

In the last few weeks, India’s education crisis has unfolded dramatically. Paper leaks. Student deaths. Protests across cities. The crisis was long in the making. Especially after NEP 2020. India now has 50 million active online learners. NITI Aayog says 35% of state university teaching posts lie vacant. Forty to fifty percent of faculty in many states are contractual. In 2013-14, the Department of Higher Education received 2.52% of the Union Budget. By 2024-25, it News Source: Frontline received 0.91%. Two-thirds of India’s higher education institutions are now privately managed. Fees now pay for what budgets used to. NEP 2020’s promise of 6% of GDP on education has never been met. Students and citizens have begun to ask a quieter, sharper question. Does the system want them educated at all? In the silence of the government, that question lingers. Are we optimising to evolve as a nation, or are we letting optics and IT cells do the talking?

Are we optimising to evolve as a nation, or are we letting optics and IT cells do the talking?