53a7bb0819fd018cadd6764 20260806063218083 chitu:chitu chitkarauniversitypublications@chitkara.edu.in WEB-FORM Issues and Ideas in Education IIE 23207655 23208805 10.15415/iie https://iie.chitkara.edu.in/ 4 30 2026 4 30 2026 13 2 10.15415/iie.2025.132 https://iie.chitkara.edu.in/2025/vol-13-no-2-2025/ National Education Policy 2020: Promise and Practice Umang Raj Gupta School of Education, Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India. Sonali Jaiswal School of Education, Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India. Background: National Education Policy 2020 is one of the most radical changes in the Indian system of education in the twenty-first century. It seeks to revolutionize the education system through holistic learning, interdisciplinary knowledge, vocational integration, and digital innovation, and reinforce basic literacy and numeracy. The inclusive policy will also focus on inclusivity, multilingual education, social-emotional development, as well as conserving the cultural and intellectual traditions of India. The policy aims at providing equitable and quality education to all learners by aligning it with other global education systems like Sustainable Development Goal 4. Purpose: This essay is a critical analysis of NEP 2020 commitments and implications in Indian education. It tries to examine the philosophical underpinnings, policy agenda, and transformational opportunities of the reform and determine the structural and institutional obstacles that can influence its effective execution. Method: The research takes a conceptual and analytical approach through an extensive literature review of academic literature, policy documents, and secondary sources on education reform in India. Government reports, international policy frameworks, comparative education studies, and empirical results of organisations like UNESCO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2019), NITI, are the key sources. It is also through analysis that international education systems like Finland, Singapore, and Japan have been compared and insights into the system have been provided. Results: The results indicate that NEP 2020 provides a paradigm shift with its foundation of literacy, experience-based learning, vocational experience, the introduction of technology, and cross-disciplinary education. The study, however, finds that there are major problems of implementation such as teacher readiness, infrastructural differences, digital divide, language policy issues, and coordination among states. Conclusion: NEP 2020 has great potential to transform Indian education into a more inclusive, flexible, and globally competitive system. However, it will require long-term investment, capacity building on the part of teachers, institutional preparedness, and joint working of policymakers, teachers, and communities to change policy vision into effective practice in the classroom. 4 30 2026 4 30 2026 26 36 10.15415/iie.2025.132004 https://iie.chitkara.edu.in/2025/national-education-policy-2020-promise-and-practice/