Transforming School and Higher Education through NEP 2020:A Review of Curriculum Innovation, Inclusive Learning, Assessment Reform, and Employability-Oriented Pedagogy.

Abstract

 The National Education Policy 2020 marks one of the most ambitious attempts to restructure Indian education after more than three decades of policy continuity. Unlike earlier reform discourses that largely treated school education, higher education, skill development, assessment, and inclusion as parallel concerns, NEP 2020 attempts to reorganize the entire educational continuum through a learner-centred, multidisciplinary, competency-based, and equity-sensitive framework. This review critically examines how NEP 2020 seeks to transform school and higher education through four interlinked reform domains: curriculum innovation, inclusive learning, assessment reform, and employability-oriented pedagogy. The paper argues that the transformative potential of NEP 2020 lies not merely in its structural changes, such as the 5+3+3+4 school framework, multiple entry-exit options, Academic Bank of Credits, and multidisciplinary higher education, but in its deeper philosophical shift from content transmission to capability formation. However, the review also highlights that policy ambition alone cannot ensure educational transformation. The success of NEP 2020 depends on teacher preparedness, institutional autonomy, digital infrastructure, inclusive financing, assessment literacy, regional adaptability, and the creation of credible pathways between education and work. Drawing upon policy documents, curriculum frameworks, national education data, and international literature on inclusive education and competency-based learning, this paper proposes an integrated framework for NEP implementation. It concludes that NEP 2020 should be understood not as a single reform document, but as a long-term restructuring project whose outcomes will depend on how effectively India can translate policy language into classroom practice, institutional governance, and measurable learner development..