India got national education policy (NEP) 2020 after 34 years. Till 2020 India’s education was revolving round national policy of education (NPE)1986. The period of 34 years to update education policy of nation is concerning. While several nations progressed after bringing in changes in their education system, India was stuck in 20th century policy. Globalization, AI, Big data, science and technology has advanced in recent years and these fields are advancing each passing month even each passing day, and that is good. Why should India wait 20, 30 or even 40 years to revise educational policies? Shouldn’t education evolve every few years (say every 3 or 5 years) to meet urgent societal and environmental needs? In a world where software receives frequent updates, mobile apps evolve weekly, and even social media algorithms change monthly, why must India wait two or three decades to update its national education policy? The last major change before NEP 2020 was in 1986. The policy was popularly known as National policy on education (NPE) 1986,updated slightly in 1992. While NEP 2020 was a welcome departure from the past, it must now be viewed as a version ready for its next upgrade. India urgently needs to transition from NEP to CEEP — a Continuous Evolving Education Policy. For decades, education in India has largely remained a theoretical pursuit, detached from the pressing needs of society and the environment. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 promised to reform this framework. It introduced multiple entry-exit options, multidisciplinary approaches, and a push for skill development. But despite its progressive tone, NEP 2020 falls short on one crucial front—it treats education as an individual enterprise rather than a collective responsibility toward nation-building. It does little to make social service and environmental action mandatory components of learning. If India must transform its education system into a truly impactful force, it must move toward a new model—Continuous Evolving Education Policy (CEEP)—that treats students not just as learners but as societal problem-solvers. Like upgrading software, educational policy too must be iterated and improved regularly. Waiting several decades for a new policy is simply out of sync with our times. We need a policy that mandates every student, from higher secondary to postgraduate levels, to dedicate time and effort toward cleaning, restoring, and building the very communities they study in. NEP 2020 was introduced with much fanfare, but it missed three critical opportunities.First, the policy does not require students to participate in community service or environmental restoration. It is left to institutions to “promote” such activities, which rarely translates to action on the ground. Second, many colleges and universities are still grappling with the structural demands of NEP. There are no clear mandates for partnerships with civic bodies, municipal committees, or ecological agencies to involve students in real-life issues. Third, while pushing for digital learning, coding, and AI, the policy overlooks India’s core problems—garbage, pollution, encroachment, civic indiscipline, and social fragmentation. Students are being taught about the world, but not how to serve it. To begin with, CEEP proposes an urgent upgrade: mandating six months of visible, measurable, result-oriented social and environmental service before awarding high school, graduation, or post-graduation degrees. A national framework—rooted in local realities—would not only make education more relevant, but also instill empathy, responsibility, and nation-building values in students across India. Community service must evolve from token charity to structured, hands-on civic engagement tailored to regional needs. This is not idealism. This is doable, measurable, and transformative. Colleges and universities can amplify this impact tenfold, given their higher human and intellectual capital.
Why India must upgrade its education policies regularly? India should not wait for 30 to 40 years to update its education system. Make NEP-2020 a launch pad of CEEP”
Mere “encouragement” won’t cut it. India is in the midst of an ecological and civic emergency. Urban floods are increasing, local waste is overflowing into streets and homes, and biodiversity is vanishing. There is an absence of civic pride, and society has become used to blaming governments for problems that communities themselves perpetuate. This is why CEEP must make social and environmental work mandatory. No student should pass Class 12 without contributing meaningfully to community hygiene. No degree should be conferred unless the student has helped clean a drain, revive a pond, or prevent plastic use in a local market. No postgraduate course should be complete without a six-month project on waste, energy, water, or social inclusion. We are not short of youth. We are short of purpose-driven youth. Schools and colleges can no longer remain neutral in this collapse of civic order. They must become the agents of recovery. The path to implementation is not complex. It simply needs sincerity and accountability. A three-step methodology can serve as a model.
1. Identify issues in the local area: Let students map issues within a 3–5 km radius. Drains, dumping points, encroached green areas, and plastic hazards should be marked.
2. Plan strategically: Students, with help from local panchayats or urban bodies, must design plans. These could include weekly cleanups, awareness drives, construction of compost pits, or reviving of traditional water systems.
3. Work until results are achieved: No photo-ops. No certificates without results. Students must self-monitor, document their outcomes, and present results before a community jury or civic body.
Each year, the graduating class of each institution should leave behind a legacy—a lake restored, a neighborhood cleaned, a community educated. The world no longer waits decades to upgrade. Every field—digital, industrial, medical, technological—updates itself annually or even quarterly. Educational policy, however, remains fossilized. NEP 2020 was launched after 34 years of the previous policy. By then, many of its provisions were already outdated. A mandatory triennial update of the education policy should become the norm. Based on data, ground reports, social changes, and environmental feedback, the policy must be iterated regularly. We need dynamic governance in education just as we have it in cyber security, AI, and digital law. CEEP, unlike NEP, must be designed with modularity, adaptability, and people-centric benchmarks. It must talk to the street vendor, the sanitation worker, the forest dweller, and the farmer—not just the edtech company or startup founder. This is not a proposal to burden students. It is a blueprint to give meaning to their education. Young people today crave purpose. They want to solve real problems, not just answer exam questions. CEEP provides a platform to convert that idealism into lasting change. India has thousands of engineering and medical colleges, arts and commerce institutions, and vocational centers. Each of these produces degree-holders. What India truly needs, however, are citizen-holders—young men and women who don’t just graduate but uplift nation in all spheres especially in the social fabric and environmental cleanliness.
(The author an Assistant Professor with J&K Higher Education Department is also a researcher based in Gowhar Pora Chadoora of Central Kashmir’s Budgam district. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”)
Dr. Ashraf Zainabi
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