Research is at the core of education. “Knowledge creation” is as important, if not more, than “knowledge dissemination”. If India is to assume the leadership role in the world of education, research must be given adequate attention to. And this should begin at the school level itself.

The Committee observed that research and innovation has not found the encouragement that is needed for an educational system to flourish. The R & I investment in India has remained at a low level of around .7 percent of GDP compared to many other nations like the USA (2.8 %), China (2.1 %) or Israel (4.3 %). There is thus an intense need to create a conducive climate to promote research in education enabling the country to become innovation centric. The Committee was of the opinion that “research in social science” and “innovation in science & technology” will finally create a prosperous India.

The Committee on NEP 2020 thus made specific recommendations to make the Indian education research centric. Some of these include the following:

School Level:

The recommendations included developing “scientific temper” and “analytical skills” among school students. This is at the core of developing a research mindset among children. Thus, research should become a focus area from school days.

One of the crucial recommendations at school level included students taking up brief projects on various subjects. These projects are aimed to enhance the research skills of students through collection and interpretation of data.

Higher Education Level:

One of the major recommendations of the Committee suggested a structural change wherein India will have only two types of Universities: “Research Universities” where research will have equal focus as teaching and “Teaching Universities” where research will get abundant focus though these are primary teaching institutions. This recommendation is an important one to give focus to research in higher education.

The Committee also recommended that “research scholarship” will be an essential trait for faculty members of HEIs besides teaching. In other words, there will be equal emphasis on “knowledge creation” and “knowledge dissemination” for the purpose of evaluation of performance of a teacher towards career progression. Through this recommendation, the Committee has envisaged ushering into an era of research driven culture in HEIs so that India can truly become a “Vishwa Guru”.

There has been a unique recommendation of the Committee on NEP 2020 whereby the students are allowed to take up the research route in the 4^th year of the newly proposed 4-year graduate program. The Committee further prescribes that such students on completion of 4 years will get a research-based honors degree and can directly enroll for doctoral program (PhD) without going through the master’s route. This is a unique recommendation aimed at promoting research in higher education.

National Research Foundation (NRF):

To promote and fund research initiatives in the country, the Committee has suggested the formation of NRF that will support all types of outstanding research endeavors including funding such initiatives. The NRF is also expected to mentor the research activities at those universities and colleges where it is at a nascent stage. This will be the apex body in the country supporting and nurturing research efforts in the education sector.

Moving Ahead:

Dr A K Sen Gupta is the Founder and Convener, Higher Education Forum (HEF). He is former Director of SIES College of Management Studies (SIESCOMS), Navi Mumbai and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai. He may be contacted at aksengupta51@gmail.com or 9821128103.