On National Education Day, here’s a look at the recent reforms in India

Indian government introduced ₹50 million scholarship for minority students — catering to all students in the economically-weaker sections. Half of the total amount of scholarship will be dedicated to girls.

Under this, the government will provide free coaching to students to prepare for competitive exams in — railways, banking and Staff Selection Commission.

The government has asked schools — both in rural and urban areas — to set up nutrition gardens to promote experiential learning at schools and instill the habit of growing vegetables and fruits in students.

This will also help turning mid-day meals more nutritious.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct the national-level examination for 15 central universities across Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka among others. The test will be conducted for over 300 undergraduate, postgraduate courses and Ph.D. programmes.

Earlier, the Central University Common Entrance Test (CUCET) was conducted by the University of Rajasthan every year. And 10 central universities accepted the scores.

To ease the burden on the youngest of students, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) announced that preschool children should not be made to sit for examinations — written or oral. The assessment should not be categorised as ‘pass’ or ‘fail,’ it said.

It insists on using anecdotal records, checklists, portfolios and interactions with students to track performance.

Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman allocated ₹938 billion towards the education fund this year — for schools and higher education programmes.It increased the school education budget this year with a ₹500 billion fund.

However, the higher education budget allocated for prominent institutions including Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) saw a drop.

In July 2019, the government announced a ‘Study in India’ programme which will be focussed to bring foreign students to study in India’s higher education institutions. It will focus to impart skills in technologies like — Virtual Reality, 3D printing, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data,and Robotics — to promote higher remuneration.

Under this, the government will infuse ₹400 crores to build world class institutions, which is three times the revised estimates of the previous year.

The draft National Education Policy proposes to bypass M. Phil degree programme and allow students to pursue PhD directly after a four-year undergraduate. “Undertaking a Ph.D shall require either a master’s degree or a four-year bachelor’s degree with research," Mint reported citing the final draft.

Indian universities are yet to mark its presence on a global scale. While the number of institutions on the list increased compared to last year, the international rank of Indian institutions slipped further, with only six universities ranking in the top 500.

Among the Indian institutions are Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indore and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, according to Times Higher Education (THE) rankings.