70% of schools say they have work to do for the NEP: survey by XSEED ahead of NEP’s second anniversary

INDIA, Gurugram, July 28, 2022 — Singapore headquartered education pioneer XSEED Education, today unveiled the findings of its survey with school owners and leaders in India to understand their readiness with the National Education Policy (NEP), and top concerns following the pandemic. School leaders cite implementation of the NEP as a key concern and say they have work to do.

India’s National Education Policy was introduced on July 29th, 2020 aimed at transforming India’s education system into a modern, progressive and equitable one. It seeks to introduce and implement changes across all levels of education in India and provides an important opportunity to move Indian education from “sorting and selection” to “human development,” enabling every student to develop to their maximum potential. It also seeks to implement changes in the way the facilitators of such education – schools, colleges and teachers – are trained and how they approach education.

To be ready for the NEP, schools need a redesigned school curriculum to make the move to experiential learning and concept-oriented teaching. In order to deliver the curriculum effectively and make a smooth transition to an NEP-aligned education system, schools will need to train teachers and understand the pedagogical needs. XSEED’s survey with school leaders finds that a majority, 70%, feel they are not fully prepared for the implementation of the NEP and say they have work to do.

The implementation of the NEP (23%) is among the top three challenges faced by schools today, along with student enrolments and admissions (29%) and teacher quality and retention (25%).

School leaders are, however, aligned on what they need to address and the aspects of the NEP that they are most interested in. Pedagogy is top of mind with one out of every 2 schools (50%). This includes making changes to the curriculum to make experiential and concept-oriented learning happen across subjects. 37% school leaders cite that they are interested in strengthening students’ core concepts to foster collaborative skills, critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making abilities. Further, professional development of teachers and foundational literacy and numeracy among students from the early ages to pave the way for higher education are of interest to 25%. Nearly 22% of school leaders also cite NEP’s focus on formative assessment for learning rather than only summative assessment.

Recently, XSEED convened a community of education experts and 10,000+ educators from across India at its annual XSEED Conference 2022 to discuss pragmatic ideas on how best to improve the quality of school education. This year’s conference was themed – The Thinking Child: How Schools, Teachers and Students can succeed with the National Education Policy. The world’s foremost expert on school assessment, Andreas Schleicher delivered the international keynote address, and Dr. Leena Wadia, who has served as a member of the drafting committee for the National Education Policy (NEP) delivered the India keynote address.

“The NEP presents an unprecedented opportunity for India. In our view, the policy’s ‘big 3’ for school education are an emphasis on early childhood education, restructuring pedagogy to be more skills-focussed and experiential, and investing in professionalization and development of teachers. This is well received by school leaders, and they are interested in embracing this shift. However, our survey clearly suggests that there are many challenges in implementing the reforms, and that’s a key concern for schools,” said Ashish Rajpal, Founder, XSEED Education.

He added, “This is where XSEED can play a pivotal role, especially in middle-income private mainstream schools, which constitute nearly 400,000 of the total 1.4 million schools in the country. XSEED is a complete academic solution for schools that entails step-by-step lesson plans for teachers, year-round classroom-based teacher training, application-oriented textbooks and assessments for students. XSEED students score 20% better in comprehension, problem-solving and communication skills — all of which are clear focus areas of India’s new NEP.”

Survey Methodology

XSEED ran an online survey with 191 school owners and leaders in the weeks leading up to the second anniversary of the National Education Policy.

About XSEED EDUCATION

XSEED Education is a Singapore-based education system that improves thinking skills and problem-solving skills in children thereby making them more confident and ready for the 21st-century workplace. Its flagship school program has reached close to two million children, upskilled, and certified over 100,000 teachers, in thousands of schools. In 2020, XSEED launched XSEED SuperTeacher, a first-of-its-kind fully-loaded teaching & learning app for teachers that can be used in both physical and online classes. The World Innovation Summit in Education (WISE) & MIT’s Legatum Center have both featured XSEED among path-breaking global innovators in education.

For more information, visit www.xseededucation.com.

For further information, please contact sg@xseededucation.com

Anika Sahni; anika@80-db.com; # +91 9810648763