Linking school education with Higher education: A policy prerequisite for holistic education

The world today is characterised by a steep competitive trend in most sectors of employment. As part of school education, skill training is important to establish a strong foundation for a thriving future. Similarly, self-awareness, excellent communication skills, problem solving, and critical thinking capabilities are some of the important areas that a student should have a grasp on while transitioning from secondary into higher education. As such, the linkage between school education and higher education has become a prerequisite for the entire education system in the long run. A major shortcoming of the Indian education system is the lack of linkage across different sectors of education. They have been working in isolation for long as if they have nothing to do with each other. Of them, the higher education sector is primarily responsible for this malaise as it has failed in providing desired level of academic support to its feeder sectors. This requires a whole series of corrective measures as it has serious policy implications for higher education in the country. This study attempts to address the linkage between school education and higher education via a focus point study of the National Curriculum Framework (2005) and National Education Policy (2020). The impetus behind this is to understand the vision of these policies in synergising these two formats of education, and whether they have successfully addressed this linkage conducive for holistic education.