Research Report about the National Education Policy

Is the National Education Policy (NEP), initiated in 2020, a bold and ambitious policy? Shubh carried out a study with assistance from IIM Bangalore, which has been completed and now published on the online SSRN agency. This research is continuing his 2020 research on the impact to the Right to Education (RTE) for millions of children in India during Covid. We contacted Shubh to learn more about his current research and potentially related aims for the future.  

I plan to carry out a third paper in this stream, but I am yet to single out a specific topic to target – Shubh, Grade 11 

Shubh initiated his research related to education with the RTE policy, exploring how education in India got impacted by Covid pandemic. “The RTE is a law for education, which attempts to resolve equal access to education for rural children”, explains Shubh, whose research was about how the ongoing pandemic affected the ability to fulfill this aim and legal rights. In his new paper, Shubh explores how the NEP policy alone cannot transform education, due to remaining issues regarding skills of teachers, the infrastructure in schools and effective governance. Moreover, current and unlucky happenings related to Covid is not helping.  

Shubh did his study together with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, an organisation focusing on education and schools, among other things. Shubh connected with the organisation through a mutual acquaintance of a person in the research division. “I chose them because of their reach and experience in the demographic I wanted to explore”, explains Shubh, who got in touch with Dr Suresh from IIM.  

Shubh sees that the main challenge he experienced, was balancing both his research with the ongoing schoolwork. “IB is a very rigorous course and taking on a task of this measure was intimidating at first”, says Shubh, who, however, managed his timing differently and sacrificed leisure, and could in the end carry out his research and paper writing. “I would encourage others to take on research, as it helps grow your perspectives and learnings outside of the confines of a syllabus. It is a great introduction to the real world.” 

To read the research that Shubh did regarding the NEP 2020, visit the SSRN website.