Brainly, an online learning platform for students, surveyed its Indian user base on the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The findings — based on responses from 4,036 Brainly users belonging to various academic levels — indicate that the students look forward to the policy.

The Centre recently announced NEP 2020 to restructure the education system. The policy broadly focusses on multidisciplinary and multilingual approach, skill development, and ramp-up of digital learning.

The Brainly survey revealed that the concept is already popular among students: 66.8 per cent are aware of the announcement. In fact, a majority of respondents believe technology can play a role in learning at the school level.

About 65 per cent of students think apps, satellite TV channels, and online courses, among others, can help understand the subject better while only less than one-fifth could not say for sure.

In the survey, 60.3 per cent of students preferred the idea of choosing subjects over hard streams like Arts, Science, etc. as it gives them more flexibility to pursue their favourite subjects.

Only one-fifth of Brainly users (20.4 per cent) would like to stick to the prevalent stream-based curriculum.

However, a majority (58.7 per cent) of students prefer to be taught in a commonly accepted language as opposed to 24.8 per cent who would like being taught in their mother tongue.

72.7 per cent of students showed interest in learning contemporary subjects like Artificial Intelligence, Design Thinking, Organic Living, etc. at school level (middle and secondary stage).

A whopping 87.7 per cent of students expect it to bring a positive change and reduce the pressure for academic excellence. This shows learners are willing to adopt a culture that is more progressive and beyond theoretical knowledge.

Commenting on the survey findings, Rajesh Bysani, CPO of Brainly, said in the official release: “The learner wants to break free from the learning model that has been rigid, rote, and focuses solely on grades. Instead, a more impactful education system is needed today that focuses on the overall development of students, ultimately, preparing them for a lifetime.”

He added: “At Brainly, we enable students to do the same by bringing them together with our model of community-based learning. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that today Brainly has built a global community that reflects this basic approach in all walks of its life. Now, with NEP in place, it will be interesting to see how the new policy takes such learning methods forward."