Released 34 years after the previous policy on education, the National Education Policy, 2020 is framed in a context that is unrecognisable from that of the past policies. This article examines the discursive framework underlying the current policymaking process.
The National Education Policy, 2020 (henceforth NEP 2020) is framed in a policy parlance, qualitatively different from that characterising the previous two national policies of 1968 and 1986. The possibilities for educational thinking it unveils (as also conceals) and the policy concerns it includes or excludes, reveal a value laden state policymaking exercise. Its ideological–philosophical moorings were readied by preceding draft policy documents released by the Government of India since 2016. These draft texts include: Ministry of Human Resource Development’s (MHRD) Subramanian Committee’s National Policy on Education 2016 report, its companion document “Some Inputs for a draft National Education Policy 2016,”