National Education Policy: Building Brand Teacher

The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP-2020) with an overarching vision and comprehensive framework introduces several structural reforms in Indian Education System to make India a global knowledge superpower, while remaining consistent with India's tradition and value system.

The renaming of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the Ministry of Education itself has brought the word ‘Education’ into clear focus. The policy not only aims to transform education but also provide an invisible opportunity to regain past glory to those who are facilitating education - ‘Teachers’.

Rishi Canak’s son Chanakya, a renowned Arthshastra teacher and strategist, had once rightly stated, “Teacher is the maker of nation” and the NEP-2020 on page 04, para 08 gives teacher the same status: “The teacher must be at the centre of the fundamental reforms in the education system. The new education policy must help re-establish teachers, at all levels, as the most respected and essential members of our society, because they truly shape our next generation of citizens. It must do everything to empower teachers and help them to do their job as effectively as possible. The new education policy must help recruit the very best and brightest to enter the teaching profession at all levels, by ensuring livelihood, respect, dignity, and autonomy, while also instilling in the system basic methods of quality control and accountability”.

eaching is a profession know for building all other professions but ask students about the career that they want to choose, and teaching profession would not even feature in their list. Similarly ask teachers why they have chosen this profession and the answer probably would be that they aspired to become something else, and teaching was a fallback career. What has led the once known as noble profession to slip to the bottom of the career ladder? Who is to be blamed? – Teachers themselves.

o denying that there are several other reasons and system too has contributed to the present loss of dignity of the teachers but then, if teachers can change the lives of millions every year, they have the potential to turnaround the system also for the good of society and the nation.

Unmindful use of words to describe the profession like teaching offers secure career, entails shorter working hours, regular annual vacations, good for females, half-hearted effort in re-skilling themselves etc. has done the damage over the years to this profession and have attracted people with mediocre capabilities looking for a relaxed life, rather than brilliant minds looking for challenges. Chapter 5 of the NEP-2020 details the visionary reforms in areas like: Recruitment & Deployment, Service Environment & Culture, Continuous Professional Development (CPD), Career Management and Progression (CMP), Professional Standards for Teachers, Special Educators and Approach to Teacher Education that will provide the much awaited structural & MORAL support to teachers enabling them to bring in the desired change in the society.

History is witness that Policy in itself cannot bring in the desired change until and unless, the implementation too is envisioned and planned with same intent and rigour. One of the main pillar of the society that has the responsibility to ensure that outcomes of NEP-2020 are realised are the teachers and if teachers who have a passion for the profession are determined to be at the forefront of this historic change, no one can stop them from regaining the past glory of being a respectful figure ‘Guru’.

e are in the time where we have an opportunity to change and re-build the brand ‘teacher’ and take definitive steps towards a rational society as visualised and described by Lee Iacocca in his one of the speeches - “In a completely rational society, teachers would be at the tip of the pyramid, not near the bottom. In that society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else”.