Reading the NEP 07: Your Classroom
English

In an affiliated college,
the question papers usually arrive
from the university in a sealed packet,
a few minutes before
the examination begins.
My syllabus comes from the university,
and so does my question paper.
Now a circular says
the NEP gives teachers autonomy.
Autonomy over what, exactly?
On page 38
the policy promises institutions
and their teachers the autonomy
to innovate on curriculum,
teaching and assessment,
within a broad framework.
Who holds it depends on where you teach.
The sentence ties that autonomy
to a broad framework of qualifications,
meant to keep programmes consistent
from one institution to another.
The chapter's first paragraph names
four cornerstones of quality learning:
curriculum, pedagogy,
continuous assessment and student support.
The curriculum must be interesting
and relevant,
and updated regularly
to meet specified learning outcomes.
Assessment, it says,
must be scientific,
designed to improve learning continuously
and to test the application of knowledge.
Back in the autonomy paragraph,
continuous formative
assessment is to be used
to further the goals of each programme.
Formative.
Every workshop uses the word.
What does it look like
in a real classroom?
A formative check comes during the course,
while student
and teacher can still act on it.
In a chemistry laboratory,
a titration is corrected in week 3.
In a literature seminar,
a short response comes back
with comments before the essay is due.
The same paragraph says that all
assessment systems shall be decided
by the higher education institution,
including those that lead
to final certification.
The institution decides.
But I teach in an affiliated college,
and our papers come from the university.
Which of us is the institution?
To the policy,
an institution is a university
or a college,
and the college it describes is one
that awards its own degrees.
Over fifteen years affiliation
is to be phased out,
and each affiliating
university is to mentor
its colleges in teaching and assessment.
Until then, your university sets
your syllabus and your final examination.
In the same paragraph,
the choice-based credit
system is to be revised.
Institutions are to move
to criterion-based grading,
and away from high-stakes examinations
towards more continuous
and comprehensive evaluation.
A friend in commerce asked me
what criterion-based grading means.
In plain words?
It means marking each student
against a standard stated in advance.
In a commerce class,
the standard might be a correct
cash flow statement.
Every student
who meets it earns the grade,
whether five students do or fifty.
The policy says this makes
the system fairer
and outcomes more comparable.
In chapter 11, pedagogy is to give more
room to discussion, debate and research.
And on page 40, teachers are promised
freedom over their textbooks,
reading, assignments and assessments,
within the approved framework.
The UGC's credit framework
of December 2022 gives priority
to formative assessment.
Sessional work,
such as class tests and assignments,
is left to the teacher
in charge of the course.
In May 2023 the UGC published
a qualifications framework of the kind
the policy describes.
It sets out each qualification
by the learning outcomes expected of it.
So how many of the marks are mine to give?
The UGC's binding regulations
of 2025 fix no number.
The weight of each test
or assignment is decided
by the university's academic body.
Students must be told it
at the start of the session,
and every course must have continuous
evaluation besides the final examination.
So the split between internal
and final marks is set
in your university's ordinance.
Most colleges are still affiliated,
and their university sets it for them.
The UGC's evaluation guidelines
of December 2022
describe criterion-referenced assessment,
with rubrics that show students
what is expected.
They are guidance,
and they set no weights.
In August 2025
the UGC released draft model curricula
for nine subjects,
from political science to commerce.
A senior official said
they were a guideline for universities,
and that states were free to decide.
The Centre set up
an expert panel to review them.
As of October 2026 we
have found no published outcome.
On paper I have autonomy.
In practice I get
a template and a deadline.
Karuna Gokarn,
writing as in-charge principal
of Saint Xavier's College in Mumbai,
says autonomy has let
her college set its own curriculum.
It now joins core subjects with research
and vocational training, she writes,
and its teachers are trained continuously
in new ways of teaching.
The political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal
fixed on four words of page 40:
within the approved framework.
In 2020 she wrote that they
could let education officials curtail
the very freedom the policy promises.
Autonomy, in her reading,
remains controlled
by the state that grants it.
Leave the argument for now.
What can I change this week,
without asking anyone?
Find your number first.
Read the ordinance
for how many marks are internal,
and for who designs those tasks.
Then give students
the criteria before the task.
Three or four lines will do:
what a good history essay,
a good nursing care plan
or a good ledger must show.
And add one small check
that carries no marks,
early enough to act on.
A one-minute written answer
at the end of a lecture is enough,
in an affiliated rural college
or a state university department.
Criteria first,
and one early check.
With 120 students I will read a sample.
That much I can do.
And nobody has to approve it.
The full text
and our sources are linked below.
Next time,
what the policy promises students
who need support,
and who has to deliver it.