Reimagining tribal education in Rayagada district through NEP 2020: Opportunities and barriers in secondary, adult, and lifelong learning

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 brings a paradigm shift in India’s education system, promoting equity, flexibility, inclusivity and lifelong learning. In this regard, the study rewires tribal education in the Rayagada district of Odisha and makes an empirical inquiry on secondary, adult and lifelong learning scenarios as opportunities & challenges. Rayagada, which has a high concentration of Scheduled Tribe populations, still struggles with educational challenges like low enrolment and retention at the secondary level, language barriers, socioeconomic constraints, limited infrastructure and poor access to adult education programmes. Hence, it draws insights from policy analysis and secondary data available in the existing literature to delve deeper into how NEP 2020 presents fresh opportunities through multilingual education as well as flexible curricular designs, vocational integration, digital education initiatives and closer integration of adult and continuing education. These provisions have potential in supporting continuity of education, pathways to skill development and a pathway towards lifelong learning for tribal youth and adults. On the other hand, it identifies key factors that act as obstacles for implementation; they include digital divide issues, lack of trained and culturally responsive teachers, weak institutional support for adult learning processes in many situations, and contextual hurdles based on poverty, migration and social exclusion. The Indian government is seemingly not fully applying a process that, if adhered to, could fill the gap between policy and implementation, which remains in tribal-dominated areas like Rayagada. Rethinking tribal education, they argue, involves context-sensitive approaches that link secondary schooling to a great adult education and lifelong learning pathways. NEP 2020 should put the spotlight on community participation, instruction in local languages and messing with institutional coordination to flesh out meaningful goals of education. This paper furthers the discussion on educational equity by framing tribal education within a paradigm of holistic lifelong learning.