| Abstract: |
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 envisions a seamless, coherent educational ecosystem that dissolves rigid boundaries between school education and higher education through structural, curricular, and administrative reforms [1], [2]. This empirical study investigates the extent and quality of coordination that currently exists between school-level and higher-education institutions in India following the introduction of NEP 2020, with specific attention to curriculum alignment, credit transfer mechanisms, multidisciplinary exposure, and institutional communication channels. Using a mixed-methods survey design administered to 420 respondents comprising school teachers, college faculty, administrators, and students, the study collects quantitative data analysed through descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation, and Pearson correlation. Five tabulated datasets present respondent demographics, awareness levels of NEP provisions, perceived curriculum alignment, the prevalence of coordination mechanisms before and after NEP 2020, and the statistical relationship between coordination mechanisms and student transition outcomes. The findings reveal a statistically significant positive correlation (r = 0.61, p < 0.01) between the presence of structured coordination mechanisms and smoother student transition from school to higher education, although awareness of specific NEP provisions such as the Academic Bank of Credits remains moderate at 54.3 percent. These empirical results substantiate the policy's foundational premise that vertical articulation between educational stages is a prerequisite for the multidisciplinary, flexible learning environment NEP 2020 seeks to create, while also revealing implementation gaps that the concluding section translates into targeted policy recommendations for strengthening inter-institutional coordination. |
