Six years since the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was approved, India's education system has undergone some of its biggest structural changes in decades. Preschool education is now part of formal schooling, students can transfer academic credits between universities, foreign universities have begun opening campuses in India and Indian institutions have expanded overseas.
Yet, several of the policy's defining reforms remain unfinished. The proposed regulator that was meant to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC) has yet to materialise, teacher education reforms remain incomplete, examination reforms have been overshadowed by repeated controversies, and public spending on education is still well below the target set by the policy itself.
Approved by the Union Cabinet on July 29, 2020, the NEP replaced the 1986 education policy and promised a comprehensive overhaul of school and higher education. Six years on, implementation presents a mixed picture.
Reforms That Have Changed The Education Landscape
The most visible transformation has been in the structure of schooling.
The traditional 10+2 system has been replaced with the 5+3+3+4 framework, formally bringing children between the ages of three and eight into the education system. Most states and Union Territories have also shifted the minimum age for admission to Class 1 from five years to six years.
To support the new model, the Centre introduced the Jaadui Pitara learning kit for young children and rolled out the National Early Childhood Care and Education framework for anganwadis and pre-schools. It has also encouraged states to integrate anganwadi centres with nearby primary schools, although training frontline workers continues to remain a challenge.
The curriculum has also begun changing. NCERT has released new textbooks for Classes 1 to 9, with revised books for senior secondary classes expected next.
Tania Joshi, Principal of The Indian School, told NDTV how the NEP has brought a fundamental shift in both teaching and learning. "It moves classrooms towards competency-based, experiential and inquiry-driven learning, where students are encouraged to explore, question, collaborate and apply concepts to real-life situations rather than rely only on rote memorisation. At the same time, it places greater emphasis on foundational literacy and numeracy, multilingualism, inclusive classrooms, and the holistic development of every child," she said.
Beyond schools, higher education has perhaps seen the most significant policy shift.
The Academic Bank of Credits and the National Credit Framework now allow students to accumulate credits across institutions and resume their education after breaks without losing academic progress. Multiple entry and exit options in undergraduate programmes have become a reality across most central universities, fundamentally changing the rigid degree structure that existed for decades.
Internationalisation, another major objective of NEP, has also gathered momentum.
IIT Madras has established a campus in Zanzibar, IIT Delhi has expanded to Abu Dhabi, while IIM Ahmedabad has opened a campus in Dubai. IIT Bombay has announced plans to establish a campus in Japan.
India has also started allowing foreign universities to establish campuses. Five institutions have received approval from the UGC, with the University of Southampton already admitting students.
Rajat Moona, Director of IIT Gandhinagar, believes the implementation of the policy has made steady progress, but several aspects need to move faster. "Reforms such as multidisciplinary education, multiple entry and exit, interdisciplinary programmes and the Academic Bank of Credits have been adopted by most institutions. However, the Academic Bank of Credits is yet to be fully operational across the higher education ecosystem, and seamless transfer of accumulated credits between institutions remains a challenge. Faster progress is also needed in multilingual education at the school level and in conducting assessments in multiple languages in higher education", he said.
Echoing similar views, Principal of Delhi University's Miranda House, Bijayalaxmi Nanda noted that the NEP has been implemented effectively at the University-level and has "brought greater academic flexibility, multidisciplinary learning, skill enhancement and a stronger focus on employability and entrepreneurship." While she admits, "there are implementation challenges, for instance at Miranda House we need to strengthen the faculty-student ratio, improve infrastructure and respond to students' concerns in a timely manner", she also stated that "educational institutions have embraced the policy in the right spirit."
Digital Reforms Have Moved Fast, But Not Without Questions
Among the fastest-moving initiatives under the policy has been APAAR, the government's digital academic identity system.
More than 20 crore students have been issued APAAR IDs, creating a digital academic record intended to remain with learners throughout their educational journey.
"Around 80 per cent of students now have APAAR IDs, and most institutions have begun depositing credits in the Academic Bank of Credits, marking important milestones in implementation", Prof. Moona noted.
The rollout, however, has generated concerns over privacy and data protection. Parents have challenged the programme before the Supreme Court, arguing that adequate safeguards for collecting and storing children's personal data are lacking. During hearings, the court indicated that parents should have the option to withhold consent for generating APAAR IDs.
Learning Outcomes Show Recovery, Not A Complete Turnaround
One of the policy's primary goals was to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy.
To achieve this, the Centre launched the NIPUN Bharat Mission in 2021, focusing on early reading and mathematics.
The latest PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan, conducted in 2024 across nearly 2.1 million students, showed that learning levels have improved compared to 2021. Class 3 students recorded average scores of 64 per cent in language and 60 per cent in mathematics.
However, both figures remain below the levels recorded in the 2017 national assessment, suggesting that learning losses from the pandemic have not yet been fully reversed.
Several Flagship Reforms Are Still Being Rolled Out
Many of NEP's headline reforms are no longer proposals, but they have also not reached full implementation.
This year, CBSE introduced twice-a-year Class 10 board examinations, reducing dependence on a single annual examination. The board has already conducted the second cycle, with students registering an improvement in performance.
PARAKH has also designed holistic progress cards that assess communication, creativity, and collaboration alongside academic performance. However, most school boards have not yet adopted the framework.
Similarly, implementation of the policy's recommendation to teach children in their mother tongue until Class 5 has been uneven.
While NCERT is developing textbooks in multiple Indian languages and CBSE has encouraged schools to adopt home-language teaching in the foundational years, multilingual classrooms, teacher shortages and political disagreements over language policy have slowed implementation.
The three-language formula continues to trigger political debate, particularly in Tamil Nadu, where the state government has argued that the policy could indirectly impose Hindi. Critics have also questioned whether limiting English exposure during the early years may disadvantage students later.
The four-year undergraduate programme has also expanded unevenly. While central universities have largely adopted it and Kerala has implemented it across state universities, several states continue to cite faculty shortages and infrastructure constraints.
Teacher education reforms tell a similar story. The Integrated Teacher Education Programme has expanded steadily since 2023-24 and will become the minimum qualification for teacher recruitment from 2030, but the national framework that was meant to standardise teacher education across the country is still awaited.
The Biggest Institutional Reforms Remain Pending
Despite progress elsewhere, some of NEP's most ambitious proposals remain on paper.
"The NEP has largely been implemented through a top-down approach, with very little space for consultation with teachers and universities. Several recommendations made by academics have not found a place in implementation", said Professor Abha Dev Habib, from Delhi University.
The plan to replace the UGC, AICTE and NCTE with a single higher education regulator has been repeatedly delayed.
The proposed Higher Education Commission of India, later recast as the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan, was introduced in Parliament last year but was subsequently referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee after concerns were raised over greater centralisation of powers.
Another recommendation that has seen little movement is the proposal to provide breakfast alongside the Mid-Day Meal scheme after the finance ministry declined to support it in 2021.
Exam Reform: NEP's Biggest Challenge
Perhaps the sharpest contrast between the policy's vision and its implementation lies in public examinations.
NEP sought to move away from rote learning and high-pressure testing by introducing competency-based assessments and more flexible examination systems. Instead, the past two years have been marked by repeated controversies.
CUET has faced technical disruptions and criticism over its conduct.
Prof. Dev noted that the NEP has centralised policy-making in higher education. "Whether it is admissions through CUET or decisions on curriculum, universities and teachers have far less say than before. From school education to master's programmes, there is increasing government intervention in deciding what is taught, while the role of teachers and academic bodies in shaping curricula has diminished," she said.
The NEET-UG 2024 paper leak severely dented confidence in the examination system, while the cancellation and re-conduct of NEET-UG 2026 triggered nationwide protests and ultimately led to the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The CBSE's nationwide rollout of on-screen evaluation for Class 12 board examinations has also encountered difficulties. Students and teachers reported blurred scanned answer sheets, technical glitches, unchecked responses and incorrect marking after the board shifted nearly 99 lakh answer books to digital evaluation this year.
The Funding Gap Continues To Shadow Every Reform
While individual reforms have progressed at different speeds, education experts argue that the biggest unfinished agenda remains financing.
"Reforms have not been backed by adequate public investment. Universities are being asked to expand programmes and introduce new initiatives without corresponding grants for faculty, infrastructure or student support, leaving many institutions to increasingly rely on self-financed courses and higher student fees," said Professor Dev.
Prof. Moona argues that "while there is always scope to increase investment in education, funding has been reasonable. Higher education is still not self-sufficient-IIT fees, for instance, have not been revised since 2009. At the same time, political opposition to certain reforms has acted as a roadblock to the policy's full implementation."
The NEP reiterated the long-standing goal of raising public expenditure on education to six per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product.
Six years later, combined spending by the Centre and states remains around 4.1 per cent of GDP.
Until that gap narrows, many of the policy's unfinished promises, from teacher recruitment and infrastructure to curriculum reform and institutional restructuring, are likely to continue moving more slowly than originally envisioned.
"The concern is not just about how the policy is being implemented, but the direction in which it is taking public education. Greater emphasis is being placed on financial autonomy without adequate public funding, while curriculum decisions are becoming increasingly centralised. Over time, this risks weakening institutional autonomy and pushing public universities towards a more commercial model. The real impact of a policy like the NEP can only be judged over the next decade or more, when its long-term consequences become visible," Professor Dev said.