NEP 2020 Implementation: Policy and Practices at Primary School Education in West Bengal

Any policy without practice is meaningless. Most recently NEP 2020 is being implemented in West Bengal. In the realm of Primary school education, it aims to properly standardise the education of West Bengal keeping in mind the mental and physical developmental stages of the children. NEP 2020 made so many provisions to reform the primary school education of the country. This paper deals with the NEP 2020 provisions for primary school education, and the practices that are going at the primary schools in West Bengal. The researchers here made Document Analysis on the policy document to find out the major policy provisions for primary education. 25 primary schools from the district of Bankura, Paschim Midnapore, Hooghly and Purba Bardhaman were surveyed and Focused Group Discussion (FGD) was made with the teachers and the functionaries to discuss on the NEP 2020 implementation at primary schools in West Bengal. The policy provisions, problems and suggestions for proper implementation at primary schools in West Bengal were discussed with deep insight. The study is qualitative in nature. Document Analysis and Thematic analysis method was applied to find out the key provisions of the policy documents for primary school education. Major issues like infrastructure problems, lack of teachers, technological issues, curriculum and examination system were also discussed with insightful details. The probable ways to remedy the situation were also discussed.