A Report Card for NEP as It Turns Six: Curriculum Moved, Reforms for Regulator and Education Funding Didn’t
Sanjay Maurya | 29 July 2026 | Hindustan Times
Six years after the Union Cabinet cleared the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, India’s ambitious rewrite of its education system since 1986 has moved from paper into classrooms in patches — deep in some areas, barely at all in others.Starting with pre-school, the 5+3+3+4 school structure replaced the decades-old 10+2 model, with early childhood education officially being folded into formal schooling. Undergraduate students can bank credits and exit degrees midway. Foreign universities have started operating in India, and Indian institutes have opened campuses abroad.
But the higher education regulator meant to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council for Teachers Education (NCTE) has been pushed back again. Teacher-education reforms are only half done, examination reform is running into leaks and botched rollouts, and the funding target that underwrites every other promise remains unmet.