Bengaluru is laying the groundwork for implementing NEP, to be in force in primary schools next year

The Education Department is contemplating a phased introduction of the National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP-2020) in schools from the 2022-23 academic year with focus on the first five years of schooling starting from Lower Kindergarten.

The first five years of schooling come under the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) under the NEP-2020. The department has constituted a cell that is coordinating with the Union Education Ministry for implementation of the plan. The thrust areas will be ECCE, Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, vocational education and school complexes.

A task force for implementation of NEP in schools held its third meeting on Wednesday, with the next scheduled on September 22. Discussions have already begun, the implementation process has already been geared up, all works initiated for NEP-2020 is being tracked, different tasks and timelines have been issued, and works are going on, said a department source.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh, after attending a meeting with department officials, confirmed that the zero year of NEP implementation in schools will start with lower classes first from 2022-23. An NEP-2020 Cell has been created and developments are being tracked on an internal server, he said.

A department official expressed concerns about integrating Anganwadis with the pre-primary education as proposed by the NEP, without adequate funding for building these classes since the first five years of schooling has to be in a cluster format.

However, Minister Nagesh assured job security for anganwadi workers. The Education Department is in collaboration with the Women and Child Welfare Department for this, he said. Ministry sources said anganwadis will not lose their relevance as, in the next academic year (2022-23), the workers will be used at their current locations, ensuring that their roles continue as before.

Allaying concerns among ground workers about integration of Anganwadis in school clusters and their obliteration, besides lack of funding for construction of new classrooms for kindergarten students, a senior department official said the programme will begin from the prelocated anganwadis itself. Also, government schools in the state already have LKG and UKG, hence there will be no need for additional classrooms.