Role of School Management and Development Committees in promotion of Secondary Education with special reference to National Education Policy-2020: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

In the modern era, education is the most powerful tool for achieving the goal of holistic development and high-quality education is essential for economical & societal development of any country. The education system of India is divided into four major categories namely pre-primary, elementary, secondary, and higher education. Thus, secondary school education is the most crucial stage of learning and development. It prepares a strong foundation for higher education and also for the world of work. A number of programmes have been implemented for the improvement of secondary school education since independence in India. In this context, very recently, National Education Policy-2020 has been announced by the Government of India for achieving the major goal- education for all and quality education by introducing new structure of school education and improve the enrollment upto 50% at Secondary stage by 2030. So, the present paper is a genuine attempt to study the role of School Management and Development Committees (SMDCs) in promotion of Secondary Education with special reference to NEP-2020 and highlight some important issues and challenges in promoting secondary school education with special reference to the main provisions of National Education Policy-2020 such as the implementation of new 5+3+3+4 curriculum and pedagogy design (including foundation, preparatory, middle and secondary stage); reduce the dropout rate at all levels; multilingualism; skill development & vocational education; improving school complexes and accreditation of school education. Hence, there should be high level awareness and orientation programmes among all the stakeholders are very important to implement the policy in letter and spirit and for achieving the goal of universal high-quality secondary education.