Daily Current Capsules - 30th July 2020
Education
New National Education Policy 2020

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about NEP 2020 highlights ) + Mains ( GS II Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
What's the NEWS

• The government approved a new education policy that seeks to revamp all aspects of education structure and aims to achieve universal access to education to all between age groups of 3-18 years by 2030.
• The Union Cabinet, approved the New Education Policy that also proposed to change the name of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the Ministry of Education.

• The draft of the policy was prepared by a panel of experts led by former Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K Kasturirangan.
  
  
  

The New Education Policy (NEP) Highlights - Higher Education

• According to the draft policy, there will be no hard separation of learning areas in terms of curricular, co-curricular or extra-curricular areas and all subjects, including arts, music, crafts, sports, yoga, community service, etc. will be curricular
• By 2040, all higher education institutions (HEIs) shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions, each of which will aim to have 3,000 or more students.
• By 2030, be at least one large multidisciplinary institution in or near every district.
• The aim will be to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3% to 50% by 2035.
• Single-stream higher education institutions will be phased out over time, and all will move towards becoming multidisciplinary.
• The system of ‘affiliated colleges' will be gradually phased out in 15 years.
• The present complex nomenclature of HEIs in the country such as ‘deemed to be university', ‘affiliating university', ‘affiliating technical university', ‘unitary university' shall be replaced simply by ‘university'.
•  A university will mean a multidisciplinary institution that offers undergraduate and graduate programmes, with high quality teaching, research, and community engagement.
• The definition will allow a spectrum of institutions ranging from those that place equal emphasis on teaching and research i.e., Research-intensive Universities to teaching-intensive Universities.
• The present nomenclature such as ‘deemed to be university', ‘affiliating university', ‘affiliating technical university', ‘unitary university' will be done away with.
• Engineering institutions, such as IITs, will move towards more holistic and multidisciplinary education with more arts and humanities. Students of arts and humanities will aim to learn more science.
• Departments in Languages, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Indology, Art, Dance, Theatre, Education, Mathematics, Statistics, Pure and Applied Sciences, Sociology, Economics, Sports, Translation and Interpretation, etc. will be established and strengthened at all HEIs.
• The undergraduate degree will be of either 3 or 4-year duration, with multiple exit options.

• An Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) shall be established which would digitally store the academic credits earned.
• The 4-year programme may also lead to a degree ‘with Research' if the student completes a rigorous research project.
• Model public universities for holistic and multidisciplinary education, at par with IITs, IIMs, etc., called MERUs (Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities) will be set up
• India will be promoted as a global study destination providing premium education at affordable costs.
• An International Students Office at each institution hosting foreign students will be set up.
• High performing Indian universities will be encouraged to set up campuses in other countries.
• Selected universities like those from among the top 100 universities in the world will be facilitated to operate in India.
• In every education institution, there shall be counselling systems for handling stress and emotional adjustments.
• Efforts will be made to incentivize the merit of students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, and other SEDGs..
• Vocational education will be integrated into all school and higher education institutions in a phased manner over the next decade.
• By 2025, at least 50% of learners through the school and higher education system shall have exposure to vocational education.
• The B.Voc. degrees introduced in 2013 will continue to exist, but vocational courses will also be available to students enrolled in all other Bachelor's degree programmes, including the 4-year multidisciplinary Bachelor's programmes.
• ‘Lok Vidya', i.e., important vocational knowledge developed in India, will be made accessible to students.
• The HRD ministry, which could be renamed education ministry, would constitute a National Committee for the Integration of Vocational Education (NCIVE)
• The policy also speaks for creating a National Research Foundation (NRF).
• The policy also mentions the creation of a Higher Education Commission of India (HECI).
• The New Education Policy (NEP) Highlights - School Education

• All students will be allowed to take board exams on up to two occasions during any given school year, one main examination and one for improvement if desired.
• The 10+2 structure of school curricula is to be replaced with a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to age groups 3-8, 8-11, 11-14 and 14-18 years respectively.
• Under the NEP 2020, the medium of instruction until at least class 5, but preferably till class 8 and beyond, will be the home language, mother tongue, local language and regional language.
• Sanskrit will be offered at all levels of school and higher education as an important, enriching option for students, including as an option in the three-language formula.

• Foreign languages, such as Korean, Japanese, Thai, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian, will also be offered at the secondary level.

• Preparatory class/Balvatika for 5-6 year olds
• Special Education Zones (SEZ)
• No hard separation of curricular/extra and co-curricular/arts and science and vocational/sports and academics
• Exams in 3,5 and 8, in addition to Board exams in 10 and 12
• National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission
• Gender Inclusion fund; KGBVs upto class 12
• Curriculum to integrate Indian culture and ethos at all levels
• Board exams: Modular, low stakes, based on conceptual knowledge and its applications
• School Preparation module for all class 1 entrants; Bal Bhavans
• Reduction in curriculum to core concepts
• National Assessment Center-PARAKH
• Utilize unused capacity of schools as Samajik Chetna Kendras
• Holistic Report card -use AI for identifying specific aptitude of child
• Vocational education from middle stage
• Teacher recruitment based on TET, NTA test and teaching demonstration
• 10 days bagless internship with local trades/craftsperson
• TET mandatory for teaching in pre-primary to 12
• Lok Vidya -local artistes as master instructors in schools
• Special provisions for Gifted children
• Mandatory for every PhD student to do a module on teacher education
• Adult education: focus upon technology based solutions; NCF for AE
• Open school -NIOS to expand to include vocational courses and courses for grades, 3, 5 and 8 also
• National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECCE) for children up to the age of 8
• energizing breakfast in addition to midday meals.
• National Mentorship programme with a large pool of outstanding senior/retired faculty
• Indian Sign Language (ISL) will be standardized

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about coastal shipping)
What's the NEWS

• The Fertilizers & Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT), a PSU under the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers has started using Coastal Shipping as a new mode of transport for the movement of fertilizers to East and the West Coast of the country.

Know! the benefits of Coastal shipping

• Shipping of fertilizers through sea route shall ease the pressure on movement of fertilizers by rail and road to a great extent
• Coastal Shipping shall also help to ensure regular supplies to farmers in Coastal states.

Know! all about Coastal Shipping

• Coastal Shipping means movement of goods in cargo from one coast to other. Coastal shipping can be national or international.
• Coastal shipping is within 20 nautical miles of the coastline. The requirements for movement of vessels in this part of the sea are different from standard requirements of deep sea shipping.
• Coastal ship movements require smaller vessels and lesser draft, and therefore, involve lower costs
• Coastal shipping cannot operate on its own; it needs support from road and rail to move the cargo from factories and warehouses to the ports and then deliver it to customers from the destination ports.

Prelims Factoids
BelYo
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about BeIYo + about blockchain technology
What's the NEWS

• Gobal blockchain start-up BelfricsBT, along with YoSync, a startup incubated at IIITB-IMACX Studios, has signed a research collaboration in agreement with IIIT Bangalore to jointly develop India's first COVID-19 blockchain platform, BelYo.

Know! about India's first COVID-19 blockchain platform, BelYo.

• The project has been funded by the Mphasis F1 Foundation as a part of their larger outreach programme to tackle the pandemic in India.
• BelYo uses the BelfricsBT Belrium blockchain platform to convert COVID-19 related clinical and vaccination data of citizens currently from the physical form into digital assets that can be retrieved by any contact tracing apps like Aarogya Setu via APIs.
• Using these APIs, an individual can scan and retrieve data as colour-coded results through a QR code, making the process 100 percent contact less and seamless at any point of entry during and post the COVID-19 crisis
• By creating digital assets on blockchain, it complements the existing COVID-19 applications like Aarogya Setu, Apthamitra (in Karnataka) etc.

Know! about Blockchain Technology

• It is also referred as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT),as it makes the history of any digital asset unalterable and transparent through the use of decentralization and cryptographic hashing.
• It creates a decentralized distribution chain that gives everyone access to the document at the same time.
• It is managed by a cluster of computers and not owned by any single entity; therefore, it is decentralized.

Prelims Factoids
Operation Breathing Space
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about operation breathing space)
What's the NEWS

• Under a multi-pronged mission, codenamed "Operation Breathing Space" the authorities of India and Israel are working on four different kinds of rapid tests, which will be jointly developed after trials on Indian COVID-19 patients

Know! about the tests

• The tests that the Israeli teams will be conducting trials for include an audio test, a breath test, thermal testing, and a polyamino test which seeks to isolate proteins related to COVID-19.
• In the audio test, a patient's voice would be recorded and evaluated through artificial intelligence and machine learning, while the breath test would involve making the patient blow into a tube, which would be analysed through specialised "high-frequency" methodology.
• The simple tests have been tried on a small sample of Israeli patients, and now would be tried in the next stage on a larger sample of Indian patients, after which they would be recalibrated depending on results, using "big data" analysis.

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL IAS