Reading the NEP 02: Where It Comes From
English

If you have sat through
an orientation on the NEP,
you have probably heard it called
the first new education policy
in 34 years.
At ours, a senior colleague leaned across
and whispered that he had heard
all of it before.
On page 60 of the policy
there is a sentence he would recognise.
It says that 6 per cent of GDP
for education was the aim
in 1968, again in 1986,
and again in 1992.
Spending, it adds,
has not come close.
Elsewhere the text says little
about its past.
Its introduction calls
the heritage of ancient Indian knowledge
a guiding light.
It names four world-class
institutions of ancient India,
among them Takshashila and Nalanda.
A paragraph on the same page says
the unfinished agenda
of the 1986 policy is dealt with here.
Does it mention the reports we
all had to learn about,
Radhakrishnan,
Kothari and Yash Pal?
Kothari's commission appears once,
in a chapter on schools.
Radhakrishnan and Yash Pal do not appear.
In 1949
the Radhakrishnan commission proposed
a University Grants Commission
and the study of three languages.
Its report, too,
looks back to Takshashila and Nalanda.
In 1966 the Kothari commission proposed
a formula of three languages,
autonomy for colleges
and a spending target of 6 per cent.
The policy of 1968 adopted
the languages and the target.
The policy of 1986 repeated the target,
and its review in 1992 confirmed it.
In 2009 the Yash Pal committee asked
for one commission
for higher education and research.
A Bill in 2011 and a draft Bill
in 2018 followed,
and neither became law.
The policy's own making began
with consultations in January 2015.
By the government's count,
about 2 lakh suggestions came in.
A committee
under T. S. R. Subramanian reported
in 2016.
In May 2019 a committee
under K. Kasturirangan submitted
a draft of 484 pages.
The Union Cabinet approved the final text,
of 66 pages, in July 2020.
From 484 pages to 66.
What fell out on the way?
The draft proposed
a national education commission headed
by the Prime Minister,
and a grant of 20,000 crore rupees
a year for research.
It also proposed doubling
education's share of public spending,
from 10 per cent to 20.
None of the three is in the final text.
The 6 per cent, three languages,
autonomy for colleges
and one regulator were all
on paper before 2020.
The 2020 text adds a degree
with exit points and a bank of credits.
Affiliation is to be phased out
over fifteen years,
and the targets run to 2040.
The 6 per cent goes back to 1968
and the regulator to 2009.
Why should I believe the dates this time?
For the 6 per cent,
the text sets no date.
The Centre and the states are to reach it
at the earliest.
In June 2026 Parliament's
standing committee on education
found spending still far below it.
In August 2023 Parliament passed
a law for the research foundation.
The single regulator has been a Bill
since December 2025.
As of October 2026 it is still
with a joint committee.
People keep saying Parliament
never debated the policy at all.
Is that true?
Members of Parliament asked
about the draft in 2019.
That September, ministers from 19 states
discussed it at a special meeting
of the Central Advisory Board
of Education.
We found no record of a debate
in either House, or of a vote,
before the Cabinet approved it.
J. S. Rajput was once director
of the National Council
of Educational Research and Training.
He sets the policy in a line
from the Kothari commission.
He writes that teachers, scholars
and institutions helped prepare it
with unprecedented enthusiasm.
Where some states delay it, he says,
the reasons may not be academic.
Anita Rampal chaired
the council's textbook committees
for the primary classes.
She writes that the policy was approved
without any discussion in Parliament,
while colleges were closed
in the pandemic.
She notes that the 2019 draft carried
its members' names and signatures.
The final text names no one,
and she asks who is responsible
for its wording.
Very few of us teach
the history of education.
What do the rest of us do with this?
When a speaker calls something new,
ask when it was first proposed.
The colleague who whispered may remember
the policy of 1986.
Then read ten pages of an older report.
The reports of 1949 and 2009 are free
to read, and linked below.
And carry one idea into your own subject.
An economics class can follow
the 6 per cent from 1966.
A language class
in a rural college can trace
the three languages from 1949.
A history
or political science class can set
a summary of the 2019 draft
beside the final text.
He retires in March.
I should ask him
about 1986 before he goes.
He may still have his copy.
The full text
and our sources are linked below.
Next time, the students who will arrive
in your first-year class.