Hailing the new National Education Policy (NEP) in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that it was futuristic as well as on-par with global standards too.
While speaking at the Association of Indian Universities’ 95th annual meet through video conference, the Prime Minister said, “India takes pride in being the mother of democracy as its values are embodied in our social life. The National Education Policy is futuristic and as per global parameters.”
The new National Education Policy was rolled out by the Centre in 2019. Approved by the Cabinet on July 29, 2020, it has been entrusted with the task of transforming India’s education system by 2021 and will replace the previous 34-year-old National Policy on Education, 1986.
In his speech, the Prime Minister talked about the challenges facing today’s students and teachers. He also talked at great length about how the NEP was exactly what the Indian education system needed to bring it on par with the global standards. He further added that NEP fulfilled Dr. S Radhakrisnan’s vision of education.
Modi said, “Education management should be undertaken keeping the whole world as a unit, but also focusing on the Indian character of education.”
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The new NEP will bring about many structural changes to the education system. A major change is in the adoption of the 5+3+3+4 structure in contrary to the old 10+2. The change is expected to pave the way for a more multi-disciplinary and holistic education system in the country.
The Prime Minister also asked universities to be multi-disciplinary, saying, “We want all universities to be multi-disciplinary and provide flexibility to students, like an easy entry and exit from courses and creation of an academic bank for easy completion of courses.”
While NEP has been declared as a harbinger of change, some concerns have been raised about the “saffronisation” of education. Dismissing such allegations, Minister of Education, Ramesh Pokhriyal had earlier said that the allegations of “saffronisation” of education were baseless.
India’s education policy was indeed due for a change but the new NEP will have to get off to a running start if it is to prove its critics wrong.
