How NEP’s Expanding Curriculum is Impacting Specialized Core Learning

NEP 2020: The new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims at bringing about a paradigm shift in the higher education sector through the adoption of a flexible and multidisciplinary structure where learners have an option to enroll in different disciplines as per their choice. However, the new system has elicited debates within academia on how it will affect honors programs that require extensive specialization.

According to critics and education professionals, mandatory courses such as skill based, value addition, and multidisciplinary courses have rendered the core courses of honors programs highly diluted. Since the bulk of academic credits is now dedicated to multidisciplinary studies rather than core honours subjects, there is a limited time frame left for students to learn their majors well. This begs the question of whether the policy makes it hard for students to do extensive research and be competitive enough in graduate admission exams. Finding a balance between learning and depth of learning is important for institutions to ensure that they do not produce generalists.

What Did The Students Say?

The experiences of undergraduate students from various universities in India bring out the stark difference between the objectives of NEP 2020 and the reality on the ground. Insha Mirza, a History Honours student from University of Delhi, feels that with the constant flow of non-major subjects like Ability Enhancement Courses (AEC), Skill Enhancement Courses (SEC), and Value Added Courses (VAC), there is no scope left for any sort of academic research work. 

Rather than getting into the nuances of her course, she finds herself constantly working on exams, project reports, and deadlines for each subject. Likewise, Simrah Maqsood, a B.Com student from Lucknow University, agrees that extra courses have helped diversify their exposure and improve their grades, but says that the stress of heavy academic assignments leads to fatigue in the last days of each semester, making them hurriedly complete all the deadlines instead of enjoying the flexible nature of the curriculum. Apart from the burden of academic assignments, lack of preparedness among faculty members is also one of the most important issues.

Complementary Vs Compulsory: Basic Difference

This is how the two different ideas of Complementary and Compulsory differentiate from each other in an educational context such as NEP: