Education As A Constitutional Mandate: A Legal Critique Of India’s National Education Policy, 2020
- IJLLR Journal
- Sep 3, 2025
- 2 min read
Dhruv Yadav, BBA LLB, Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak
ABSTRACT
The National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP 2020), is a transformative policy instrument restructuring India’s educational framework to align with constitutional mandates of equity, inclusion, and economic advancement. This paper, through doctrinal analysis, evaluates the legality and economic ramifications of the 5+3+3+4 model, vocational integration, and multilingual instruction. While normatively progressive, the policy’s enforceability is impeded by fiscal deficits, infrastructural inadequacies, and regional disparities. The study concludes that NEP 2020, though intra vires the State’s developmental obligations, necessitates stringent regulatory oversight, resource allocation, and accountability mechanisms to actualize its potential as a catalyst for human capital formation and socio-economic justice.
I. INTRODUCTION
The NEP 2020 is a radical mapping of the future of the Indian education system, which can be termed a significant revolution in the future of education in India. Designed by the Ministry of Education, this policy seeks to redesign India's learning bedrock to fit the realities of geo economy and society. NEP 2020 focuses on quality, equity, inclusion, and lifelong learning to build an education system for the post-industrial knowledge economy.
It is the structural modification of the conventional school system, a pattern followed in Indian schooling for many years, the 10+2 education model. This model is now changing to a more liberal and elastic 5 + 3 + 3 + 4 structure. This is an appropriate Input-based cost approach that combines early childhood care and education (ECCE) with formal schooling, a previously neglected area in India. Pre-primary and early primary is the first five-year level; preparatory is the next three years; middle is the next three years; secondary is the final four years. All these phases are well-planned and effective in meeting the learners' cognitive, emotional, and social developmental ages and instructional needs.
