Introduction
There have been a lot of talks around the educational sector concerning the New Education Policy,[1] released by the Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’.[2]Considering all the lacuna in the educational sector, the policy was introduced with the aim of progressive reform. The policy knowingly initiated the long-awaited talk on the credibility of the educational sector. On the path of its purposes, the policy draft has been seen as an overhaul of the existing education landscape of the country, including the legal education sector.
Legal education, apart from promoting the intelligent practice of law, also serves as the link to Legal education, has a direct connection with the quality of the rule of law in the country. The rule of law prevails where the society trusts the law and legal education acts as a medium in inculcating the values of law in the young generation. Concerning the importance of legal education in the security, peace, and welfare of the country, emphasis should be laid on ensuring the quality of legal education. The policy of 2020 laid several changes and reforms, which might have a drastic impact on legal education.
The article here aims to highlight some of the significant changes and reforms which the New Education Policy 2020 suggests.
Background
NEP 2020 is a very ambitious and relatively progressive guideline prescribed by the Modi government, which will replace the 1986 policy. The National Education Policy of 1986[3] focused on the access of education to all, while the new policy drafted in 2020 focuses on flexibility while providing quality education. In furtherance of the same, the new policy focuses on the principles of multidisciplinary, creativity, critical thinking. Emphasis has also been laid on life skills, ethics, and constitutional values. Public education is promoted to restrict the complete privatization of the Educational sector. The inclusion of the Right to education till the age of 18 years is one of the most appreciated proposals in this policy.All these sweeping changes by the Indian Government can have a major change in the future of legal education.
Impact on Legal Education
- Inclusion of Ethics and constitutional values
Legal education has been dependent on ethics, morals, and values. Some of the most important keywords of any law student’s life would be morality, justice, and principles. These values were also the prominent parts of our Hindu ancient education system. In traditional legal education, format emphasis has been laid on preserving the value of justice. But, with the changing time and change in the legal profession, the gravity towards such values has been depreciating. In the recent past, we have several cases of immoral, unethical professional behavior, one of such is the recent case of Prashant Bhushan, where the supreme court tried famous lawyer for the offense of Contempt of Court. All these offenses, like contempt of court,originate from the vacuum created due to the lack of ethical and moral values on the profession. There is a famous saying that the education molds the future of that profession, in the case of the legal work, the lack of inclusion of ethical and moral values in legal education could be one of the primary reasons for losing the prestigiousness of the profession. The current legal education system though emphasized on the access to education to all but ignored the element of ensuring quality, by inscribing the values of ethics and morals.
One of the primary aims of this new draft of NEP is “to create a new system that is aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st Century education while remaining consistent with India’s traditions and value systems.”[4]The policy further aims to provide legal education, which is informed and illuminated with constitutional values of justice- social, economic, and political. Inscription of these values will thrive the importance of democracy, the rule of law,and justice in the country. The legal profession is considered one of the most prestigious professions of all; legal education holds the responsibility to ensure the same. It is pertinent to state that ethical and constitutional values should be a significant part of legal education to fulfill that responsibility. The NEP 2020, has made a commendable reform to include such values in the curriculum while recognizing the long-term goals of the legal education.
- Multilingual education
Indian Constitution recognizes 22 languages.[5]Despite having only 22 languages in the Constitution, India has even more languages than the number of states the country has. The multilingual nature of India provides a distinctive character to the country. India has been famous throughout the world because of the variety of cultures and languages in the country. The education system in the foundation of any society. Society thrives its development and growth from the educational sector. In consideration of the same, the draft of NEP 2020 is the prominent document while deciding the future of the country. The changes on the part of the inclusion of various languages in the step towards the betterment of society. The Policy stated that the state institutions offering legal education should consider providing education in English and the language of the state in which the law program is situated. It has been speculated that it will reform the educational sector by ensuring the ease of legal education at the comfort of law students. Witnessing the response of this proposal, it should be noted that it will help to alleviate delay in legal outcomes consequent to the need for translation.
- For global common good
Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian thinker, once stated on “learning in a non-competitive and non-hierarchical ecosystem and discovering one’s true passion without any sense of fear.”[6] She emphasized the element of critical thinking to make education as a means of achieving education as a public good. The ability of critical thinking derives the ability to standout among cultural differences. The skill will eventually make the global common good. Education is a necessary public good to ensure nation building, community development. We have a very exclusive society, the incidents such as the exclusion of transgender community based on their sex are a witness of the same. To make that society inclusive, legal education could be a major factor. Education, as a public good, will act a fresh air to make communities alive. Ensuring access to education to every section of the public will produce sensitive, creative, and upright citizens, on whom the society could rely on the aim of an inclusive society.
The NEP policy draft can be seen as a medium to achieve this goal. The policy discourages the concept of stand-alone institutions, in the way of making the education a public good. In furtherance of the same, it states that “All institutions offering professional or general education will aim to evolve into institutions/clusters offering both seamlessly organically, and in an integrated manner by 2030.”[7]Through this proposal,multidisciplinary institutions, a holistic educational environment, will develop, which will suffice the purpose of Education as a public good.
- Globally competitive and quality assessment
The policy ensures the inclusion of global outreach of the education, which is the positive step towards international recognition of India, in the educational sector. The draft proposed the setting up of the national assessment center, the PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), as a standard-setting body under the Ministry of Education indicates the Government is keen to provide a regular check on the education system. The set up will help states in ensuring standardized quality assessments. Legal education is considered to require global competition. Legal education is needed to suffice various social-economic responsibilities, like creating future lawyers to establish justice globally. In the way of the same, they are adopting global competition for ensuring best practices and embracing new technologies for broader access to and timely delivery of justice in the most desirable move for the educational policy.
- Ensuring social relevance and acceptability
With the increase in the unethical behavior of legal professionals, the law as a profession has been losing its relevance. The profession has been losing the social acceptability and trust, which eventually affects the trust of masses on the Judiciary. To cover these lacunas, the NEP policy, emphasized in ensuring social relevance and acceptability. The draft stated that to achieve these elements; the policy relies on the culture and tradition of people, including the legal history, literature, and mythology. It mentions that universities should inscribe the history of legal thinking, principles of justice, the practice of Jurisprudence, and other foundational values in the curriculum. Implementation of the same will suffice the original purpose of legal education for budding lawyers.
Conclusion
To conclude, it is pertinent to mention that the new National educational policy drafted by the Ministry of Human Resource development possesses some of the desired reforms for the sector. If this policy is implemented with full potential, then the country might witness major growth in the educational sector. Talking about legal education, specifically, the above mentions provisions in the policy give an overview that the policy has focused on maintaining and retaining the esteem of legal education with long term goals. It cannot be denied that legal education needed this reform for the longest time, and now that we have a progressive policy, the proper implementation should be emphasized.
By-
Ananya Bhargava,
Dharmashastra National Law University
[1]Ministry of Human Resource Development, National Education Policy, 2020, (July 29, 2020), https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf
[2] Ritika Chopra, Explained: Reading the National Education Policy, 2020, The India Express, (August 21, 2020), https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/reading-new-education-policy-india-schools-colleges-6531603/.
[3]Ministry of Human Resource Development, National Education Policy, 1986, (May, 1986), https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/npe.pdf.
[4]Supra 1.
[5]India Consti. Schedule 8.
[6] Amitabh Mattoo, Treating education as a public good, The Hindu, (November 16, 2019), https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/treating-education-as-a-public-good/article29986292.ece.
[7]Supra 1.
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