NEP 2020 in the light of Swami Vivekananda’s Educational Philosophy: An Analysis

Abstract

Swami Vivekananda envisaged that a New India will arise: ‘She is awakening! This motherland of ours, from her deep long sleep. None can resist her anymore; never is she going to sleep anymore; no outward powers can hold her back anymore’ (CW, 3.146). Swami Vivekananda was a revolutionary thinker and out-of-the-box educationist who dared to discard the education system of his times and proposed to replace it with an encompassing student-centric harmonious model towards a unifying society which is just and equitable to all. He dreamt of a scheme of education which caters to the needs of the learners at every level-be it intellectual, moral or spiritual. The program that he propounded was a fusion of age-old traditional values extracted from our timeless scriptures and the modern scientific knowledge that could lead India to become a modernized nation, in unison with the developed powers of the world. There exist many grounds for commonality between Vivekananda’s vision and NEP which reflects how we’re trying to walk down the path laid down by his vision. His scheme of education is comprehensive and complete as it intends to develop all the must-haves in the young learners to help them sail through their lives with élan and to be an asset to the nation. His phenomenal educational philosophy reverberates in the guidelines laid by National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.Thus the present paper highlights the vision /ideals of Swami Vivekananda in the light of NEP 2020