Educators call for rethink of India’s exam-heavy secondary education amid NEP’s skilling push

New Delhi: As the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 pushes for vocational education and hands-on learning into secondary education, educators and policymakers called for a rethink of an exam-heavy school system that leaves students little time to explore skills and practice alternative pathways to success.

During a panel discussion titled “NEP@Work: Secondary Education and Skilling” at Charcha 2026, government officials, education practitioners and young people discussed how schools can better prepare students for the transition from education to work.

The NEP 2020 recommends integrating vocational education into mainstream school education from the early years, with students gaining exposure to hands-on skills and vocational courses from the middle-school stage and greater choice of such courses in Classes 9-12.

Soumya Jain, founder and CEO of iTeach Schools, a non-profit providing free, high quality education to students from low income families, said secondary students spend too much of their time preparing for examinations.

“Basically, out of 16 waking hours, students are spending 10-12 hours reading, writing and preparing for tests. That’s not okay,” he said. “Because our Class 10 exam is literally just a written exam, by the time you reach Class 9, all of that [practical learning] goes out the window.”

Jain also pointed to the increasingly abstract nature of subjects such as mathematics in the secondary years. “Math is so abstract. Algebra and geometry is so abstract,” he said, arguing that students can end up repeatedly practising proofs rather than applying mathematical concepts in practical settings.

He also questioned the amount of time students spend dealing with three languages. “Three languages are… while I appreciate the need in our country, but in this way the student is supposed to essentially…reading, writing and preparing for exams,” he said.

Integrating skilling into school, Jain said, could provide students with “different ways to express themselves” and show them that doing well in an examination is not “the whole soul of my existence”. He said schools should also measure creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, confidence and joy.

Also Read: NITI Aayog wants India to reimagine skilling, pitches ‘skills not degree’, training from Class 6

Secondary years seen as a ‘make-or-break’ stage

Emphasising the importance of the secondary stage, including Classes 9 to 12, Dr Nisha Dhawan, president and CEO of Empower Foundation, said this is the stage when young people begin falling out of the education system.

“We need to double click on secondary school education,” Dhawan said, pointing to falling enrolment and barriers that particularly affect adolescent girls, including early marriage, menstruation-related challenges, lack of adequate facilities and difficulties in safely travelling to school.

She said the 10-24 age group represents the “make or break years” of a young person’s trajectory and called for sustained investment in adolescents, particularly girls.

Pranjal Patil, state project director (SPD) and additional director (Vocational), Samagra Shiksha, Directorate of Education, GNCT of Delhi, said one of the biggest challenges was changing parents’ attitudes towards vocational careers, given the social hierarchy around conventional academic courses.

“Changing parents’ minds about why this is also a viable career for their child is a very difficult social phenomenon. In our country, we still have this colonial mindset that one is better and another is lower,” she said.

Principals, teachers key to making skilling work

Jain said principals need to play two roles in the changing education system—“curator” and “coach”. He said principals should curate the best possible learning experience for students based on their aspirations and community.

“The core role of the principal we see is to curate the best possible experience for your students,” he said. “What are your aspirations? Why are you curating your timetable accordingly?”

He said principals also need to coach teachers as new subjects and skills are introduced. “You have curated your timetable. Now agriculture is a core subject that we are offering. Can you coach your teachers into being able to teach that well to your students?” he said.

For recent Class 12 graduate Khushi Rawat, teachers recognising students’ abilities and giving them work suited to those strengths could help build their confidence. “When teachers recognize our abilities and give us work on that particular trait, then we will automatically improve in that thing,” she said.

Charcha 2026 is organised by The/Nudge Foundation at the India Habitat Centre

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)

Also Read: Young Indians want dignity, security, growth in blue-collar jobs, says panel at Charcha 2026

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