Major Reforms For School Board Exams Announced In NEP, Regional Medium Of Instruction Encouraged

Various reforms in the school education sector of India were announced on Wednesday (29 July) after the Union Cabinet approved the new National Education Policy (NEP).

As per Secretary, School Education Anita Karwal the importance of Board examinations will be reduced and they may be conducted multiple times in a given year. Students may also get an option to appear for an easier exam paper - which has already been implemented in case of Mathematics.

Additionally the board examinations would be split into two parts - objective and subjective and would only test the student's ability to apply knowledge to discourage rote learning.

She added that wherever possible the schools should keep the medium of instruction as the regional language till at least Class 5 and preferably till Class 8.

Students will be taught coding from class 6, and vocational education will be introduced from class 6 itself as opposed to the current practice of introducing it at the secondary level.

A new national assessment system called PARAKH – Performance, Assessment, Review and Analysis for Holistic Development – will be introduced to ensure every school confirms to a required minimum benchmark.