Why Logical Thinking is at the forefront of NEP 2020

The Union Cabinet of India put forth a new National Education Policy (NEP) on Wednesday, i.e., 29th July 2020, as a replacement to the 34-year-old National Policy on Education, framed in 1986. NEP-2020 aims at the goal of transforming its system such that it meets the needs of the 21st Century India. The Union Ministers, particularly Prakash Javedkar and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, have played a key role in the policy development. It has also been proclaimed that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) would hereafter be referred to as the Ministry of Education.

Why was this modification needed?
With the prevailing pandemic crisis and the nearly collapsing education system, a reformation was much needed, as well as, expected. Besides, development of the NEP is a common measure that usually comes along every few decades. India has had three to date. The first NEP was launched in 1968 and the second one in 1986, under the leadership of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi respectively. So clearly, NEP-2020 holds the third position that has been released on Wednesday under the Prime Ministership of Narendra Modi.

What kind of changes?
A gigantic list of decisions has been made, the major one among which is the discontinuation of M.Phil programme and that there would be a single control board for all higher education institutions. NEP-2020 focuses on maintaining the curriculum with comparatively reduced syllabus while retaining the core essentials and stressing on critical thinking and practical learning.

Similar to critical thinking, logical thinking requires the use of reasoning skills to study a problem critically, which will enable you to draw a reasoned decision on how to proceed.Logic is the study of how claims and reasoning can be evaluated. Critical thinking is an evaluation method that uses logic to differentiate fact from falsehood, rational from irrational convictions.