The article is an original write up which emerged due to the recent upheavals in the Higher Education (HE) in India. In spite of the reforms and restructuring to pave the way for implementation of NEP 2020 in higher education, the HEIs in India are in news for all the wrong reasons. The suicide cases and subsequent cognizance of the same by the judiciary of India is a matter of grave concern. The declining well-being of the stakeholders involved in the affairs of Higher Education and apologetic state of affairs in admission, examination and teaching learning is placing India nowhere on the world map of Education. The article speaks about three missing points which needs to be addressed urgently. The first missing link talks about a dignified, eminent and visionary leader, the second is about the power struggle between the administration & the academia and third the students who becomes the guinea pig for all the trials and tortures that emerges as a result of continuous conflict, dissatisfaction and discontent. Finally, the paradoxes pertinent in Higher Education needs to be resolved at the supersonic speed with ultimate precisions if we as Indians wish to tell the world that we have the best education system of the world and there is no better place than India for educational tourism.

This policy paper proposes a model for, ‘National Leadership Mentor Program for School Teachers’ on the lines of recommendations of National Education Policy 2020 of India for setting up National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) and National Mentoring Mission (NMM). The objective of the paper is to review two documents on National Professional Standards for Teachers & National Mentoring Mission developed by National Council for Teacher Education, India and propose the mentoring model, which integrates the mentoring aims with the career progression targets. The purpose of the model is to develop a system of scaffolding teachers by drawing in from the mentoring pool, prepared specifically for the skill sets and standards of particular level. The methodology adopted is qualitative research with documentary content analysis method. The key finding is that there is a need to integrate NPST with NMM for ensuring excellence in acquiring standards and movement through career progression. The proposed model provides the basis for implementation of NMM at a National Level.