India replaced its 34-year-old education policy in 2020. But five years on, the biggest fight over the new policy isn’t about curriculum. It’s about which languages children must learn.
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Indian Society · IndSoc0041
National Education Policy 2020
School Structure
5+3+3+4 replaces 10+2
Mother tongue as medium till Class 5
Higher Education
4-Year UG: certificate to research degree
Academic Bank of Credits, multidisciplinary study
Targets vs. Reality
GER: 26.3% → 50% target by 2035
Spending target 6% of GDP; actual ~3.5-4%
Approved 29 July 2020
Five years on, the sharpest conflict isn’t curriculum design — it’s the three-language formula, which has pulled the Centre and states like Tamil Nadu into a real federalism dispute.
Must Know
- The Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2020 on 29 July 2020, replacing the 1986 policy.
- It replaces the old 10+2 school structure with a 5+3+3+4 structure: Foundational, Preparatory, Middle, and Secondary stages.
- NEP 2020 targets a Gross Enrolment Ratio of 50% in higher education by 2035, up from 26.3% at the time.
- It recommends raising public education spending to 6% of GDP. Actual spending has stayed closer to 3.5–4%.
- Higher education gets a Four-Year Undergraduate Programme, with multiple exit points. A certificate comes after one year, a diploma after two, a degree after three, and a research degree after four.
Good to Know
- An Academic Bank of Credits stores and transfers a student’s credits across institutions, supporting the multiple entry-exit system.
- APAAR (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry) gives each student a unique 12-digit ID, linked to their ABC account. It integrates with DigiLocker and Aadhaar, bringing school, higher-education, and skill-development records onto one platform. As of June 2026, over 26 crore verified APAAR IDs had been generated nationwide.
- NEP recommends teaching in the mother tongue or regional language until at least Class 5, wherever possible.
- Higher education becomes multidisciplinary. Students can combine subjects across science, arts, and commerce, rather than being locked into one stream.
- By early 2025, over 105 universities, including 19 central universities, had adopted NEP reforms. Adoption elsewhere has been slower.
Test Yourself
Great to Know
- The Four-Year Undergraduate Programme reflects a real shift in thinking: from a rigid, all-or-nothing degree toward a flexible, modular one.
- NEP’s language and funding disputes show a genuine tension between a national policy and states’ constitutional autonomy over school education.
- The gap between NEP’s 6%-of-GDP target and actual spending is a useful reminder. A policy’s stated goals and its funded reality can diverge for years.
Current Affairs
- The Centre withheld ₹2,151.59 crore in Samagra Shiksha funds from Tamil Nadu, its 60% share of a ₹3,585.99 crore FY2024-25 outlay, tying release to the state adopting NEP 2020 and PM SHRI. Tamil Nadu calls this a violation of cooperative federalism. (Source: Swarajya)
- From the 2026-27 academic year, NEP’s three-language formula makes a third language compulsory from Class VI, a change several non-Hindi states see as risking Hindi imposition. (Source: The Federal)
- Telangana’s state universities resolved to implement NEP 2020 for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes starting in the 2026-27 academic year. (Source: Telangana Today)
This is one piece of India’s wider education landscape. See GK0080 — Education in India for how school policy, higher-education oversight, and the new push to teach AI itself all fit together.
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