The new National Education Policy passed by the cabinet on Wednesday did away with the 34-year-olf education policy and it brought with it a large number of changes.

One of the biggest changes is the low priority of exams in favour of a more holistic learning and assessment pattern and allowing students to appear for exams even board exams — twice a year.

HRD Minister and Education Minister Ramesh Nishank Pokhriyal said in an interview with IANS that board exams for classes 10 and 12 would be easier and students will be allowed to appear for them twice a year.

Thiwas was suggested last year in the draft education policy as well.

Exams will test competencies and not memorisation skills

This is being done to test core competencies instead of memorised facts so students don’t depend on rote learning or coaching centres.

“All students will be allowed to take the board examination twice during any school year to eliminate the higher risk aspect of final examinations. A main examination and an improvement will be allowed if necessary,” Pokhriyal told IANS.
As per the new National Education Policy, further changes are likely to be introduced in the future such as modular or semester-wise board exams, separate exams for objective and subjective-type questions, and exams at different levels of difficulty.

Other major changes as per NEP 2020

Other major changes in the NEP 2020 includes extending free education till the age of 18, a 5+3+3+4 structure for school education instead of 10+2, a single regulator for higher education institutions except for law and medical colleges, merging of different streams so there is no strict divide, and many more.