Stuck in class—students, teachers, NEP 2020

• Indian students in Higher Education spend more time in the classroom than their European Union and North American counterparts, leading to potential undereducation.

• The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 mandates a higher number of courses per semester, resulting in 20 hours of classroom time per week.

• This extra time limits essential academic activities outside the classroom, leading to exhaustion and reduced learning.

• The increased classroom time may incentivize rote learning and perpetuate school dynamics where teachers are knowledge owners and students are passive recipients.

• The NEP 2020 emphasizes continuous assessment, allowing for a mix of low and high-stakes assessments, incentivizing continuous effort and learning.

• The increased classroom time negatively affects the quality of teaching, as it eats into time available for research, course revisions, and cross-disciplinary collaborations.

• The NEP 2020 vision includes designing the course, selecting reading materials, developing and administering assessments, and grading.

• To fully realize the NEP 2020 vision, a reconsideration of the number of courses and classroom time a course in new four-year undergraduate programmes across India is necessary.