Centre to set up ‘PM Shri Schools’ to prepare students for future: Education minister

By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Centre is planning to set up ‘PM Shri schools’, which will be aimed at preparing students for the future. It will also be the laboratory of the new National Education Policy (NEP), said Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday. 

Addressing the two-day National Education Ministers’ Conference in Gujarat, Pradhan said, “School education is the foundation on which India will become a knowledge-based economy.”

“We are in the process of establishing ‘PM Shri schools’ which will be fully equipped to prepare students for the future,” said the minister at the event, which was attended by state education ministers. Tamil Naidu boycotted the meeting to protest the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP).

He said these state-of-the-art schools will be the “laboratory of NEP 2020.”

Highlighting that the “new generation” cannot be deprived of 21st-century knowledge and skills,” he said, he would like to “encourage and solicit suggestions and feedback” from all the states and union territories and the entire education ecosystem for creating a futuristic benchmark model in the form of PM Shri schools.

He said the 5+3+3+4 approach of the NEP covering preschool to secondary school lays emphasis on early childhood care and education programme (ECCE), teacher training and adult education.

Also, the focus has been given to the integration of skill development with school education and prioritising learning in the mother tongue.

 “The next 25 years are crucial to establishing India as a knowledge economy that is committed to global welfare. We all have to collaboratively work together, and learn from each other’s experiences and successes to make learning more vibrant and take India to greater heights.

“I encourage education ministers of all states and union territories and also seek active participation from all stakeholders for developing our National Curriculum Framework as well as developing quality e-content for expanding the reach of digital education and for universalising education,” the minister said.

Best practices in education coming from different states and union territories will act as a cumulative force in transforming India’s youth as global citizens, he added.

Praising the education models of some of the states, he said, “The education fraternity can immensely benefit from models of Karnataka, Odisha, Delhi, Meghalaya, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana.”

“Experience and knowledge sharing from all state education ministers and a structured and outcome-based discussion at the conference today will lead us one step further towards transforming our learning landscape, in line with the NEP 2020,” Pradhan said.