Tag: National Education Policy

  • INTERVIEW | ‘We could have rebirthed sanskrit’: Subramanian Swamy

    Express News Service
    The new National Education Policy (NEP) is nothing but a khichdi, said veteran BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy. He added that the Indian education system has not changed much since Thomas Babington Macaulay devised the Minute on Education in 1835. Swamy was discussing the Indian education system and what changes it needs to be more ‘Indian’ with Senior Journalist Kaveree Bamzai at The New Indian Express’ ThinkEdu Conclave 2021.

    When asked whether the NEP incites hope for a viable change in the Indian education system, Swamy said, “These are all like khichdi — a little bit of this and a little bit of that. The question is: when you go to a class, does your teacher make you think? Here, whatever the teacher says, you memorise and reproduce in the exam and you will get the marks. The room for original thinking and research is not there,” said Swamy.

    But this begs the question, what needs to change? There are two things, said Swamy.

    “It should not be necessary to get a bachelor’s or master’s degree to get a job which is reasonably decent. I think 75 per cent of our people go to college to get a bachelor’s degree while in the United States, it is 35 per cent, in China, it is 45 per cent. That does not mean China is less literate. They train people for technical things so they get a job. Here the minimum qualification for mechanics is BA. Those who go to higher education must be committed to research,” he said.

    “The second thing is that you need to give a very decent salary to teachers. Maybe in Delhi University you get a decent salary or in JNU you get an even decent salary. But in the primary schools, if you compare with US and China, you’d see the difference. Much of the thinking process is developed in schools and if they go to college, they go straight into writing papers,” he said.

    “This system has not changed much since Macaulay’s time. And had stated his objective quite clearly  he said I want to create people who are Indian in blood and colour and they should dress in British attire, should speak English and not Sanskrit and they should adopt British morals,” he said.

    “Mughals had burned down our libraries but the British were a little smarter about it. They wrote an alternate history while the Mughals just burned down things. The alternative history is that we are not one country or one people. The north is Aryan and the south is Dravidian. These are the words they had taken from us. Dravidian is a word that Adi Shankara introduced. It means a place where the three oceans meet. There is no word called Aryan. There is only the word Arya which means anybody who is a cultured person,” Swamy added.

    “You become an obscurantist if you talk about the past and this is the format in which we have been functioning. We are still struggling, the education system has the same books with the same untruth and nonsense in it. The English language which we are using out of compulsion makes it easier. We could have given a rebirth to Sanskrit as the Jews did with Hebrew,” said Swamy.

    The Chinese have innovated furiously in the past few years while India has been lagging behind as Indians don’t push themselves enough towards innovation, said Swamy.

    “The Chinese have also adopted some of the Sanskritic principles. They gave autonomy for basic research in Physical Sciences. And the Chinese have gone very far ahead. We were ahead of them till 2005. After that, the decline started and during Narendra Modi’s period, the gap has widened,” added Swamy.

  • 2020 will go down as the year India got NEP: Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal

    The world may remember 2020 as the year that brought about COVID and a pandemic that rocked our lives but India will remember the year for another reason, said Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal.

    “While 2020 will be known as the year of COVID-19, it will also be known as the year when India launched the NEP amid a pandemic,” Pokhriyal said. He was delivering the inaugural address at the ninth edition of the ThinkEdu Conclave 2021.  

    ALSO READ | ThinkEdu Conclave 2021: The science that’s behind Indian epics

    Prior to Pokhriyal’s address,  The New Indian Express Editorial Director Prabhu Chawla spoke about how far ThinkEdu has come over the last nine years. He said, “We step into our ninth edition with mixed emotions – happiness for hosting eight epic editions and sorrow for being coerced into hosting this edition virtually only due to COVID. We have sparked debates and even generated controversies. This year, we have brought illuminating discussions and conversations about new ideas from India’s finest thinkers – scientists, businessmen and storytellers. And all of it to discuss lessons for a new world – a world where education will set us apart.”

    In his address, Pokhriyal reflected on India’s rich past and how the NEP aims to restore  some of the lost glory. “Among the various things that the NEP is set to transform, it will aim to make India more self-reliant, unite the citizens and also help make India a global knowledge superpower. We want to ensure students at the grassroots and also at the higher echelons of academia are exposed to quality education,” Pokhriyal said.

    Speaking about Indian universities making it to the Top 100 of the QS Rankings, Pokhriyal added, “Students usually prioritise higher salary packages as an estimate of their potential. But after the NEP is implemented, we will have more patents by tapping into our capacity for academic probe and research. This year, 12 Indian institutions have made it to the Top 100 in QS Rankings and in the future, more Indian research institutes will be represented internationally. For this purpose, academic research will receive funding of Rs 50,000 crore over five years.”

    ALSO READ | Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal inaugurates virtual ThinkEdu, says India didn’t let students lose a year

    Elaborating on his vision for the NEP, Pokhriyal explained, “Through the NEP, we will not only find and develop talent but help produce top-notch content. Without quality content, talent doesn’t have much worth. When content and talent will unite, it will lead to new patents. That is the day when India will become truly self-reliant. NEP is the foundation on which India’s future development, as envisioned by the Prime Minister, is based. NEP is national as well as international. It is impactful, interactive, innovative and inclusive.”

  • NEP 2020 to be implemented in Goa after taking institutions into confidence: Pramod Sawant

    By PTI
    PANAJI: Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the state Legislative Assembly that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 will be implemented in the state only after taking the concerned institutions into confidence.

    Opposition leaders including Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, Goa Forward Party MLA Vijai Sardesai, Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte, MGP MLA Sudin Dhavalikar and Congress MLA Luizinho Faleiro expressed concerns over the implementation of the NEP.

    The question was raised on the floor of the House by NCP MLA Churchill Alemao.

    Responding to the concerns, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the NEP will be implemented after taking all institutions into confidence.

    “We have already started a survey about infrastructure in various schools,” he said.

    During the Question Hour, Lourenco expressed fear that the NEP will usurp the rights of institutions run by minority communities and said the state government should clarify on the issue.

    GFP MLA Sardesai said there is a concept of forming “clusters” of schools to implement the policy.

    “Schools run by the Diocesan Society are worried that after formation of these clusters, their unique existence will be maintained or will it be diluted,” he said, urging the state government not to implement the policy in haste.

    Further, Khaunte pointed out the government had not done an impact study to gauge the repercussions of the NEP.

    “When the structure is changing, the repercussions should be studied. the chief minister should hold half a day or a day-long discussion on the policy in the Assembly,” he said.

  • Modi government plans 35 model public multi-disciplinary research universities across India

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Union education ministry has prepared an ambitious plan to set up about 35 government universities for multiplanetary research at par with Indian Institutes of technology and the Indian Institutes of Management in most states.

    Senior government officials said the draft of the project estimates a cost of Rs 100 crore for each university in the first phase and the proposal will be moved to the Union cabinet soon for approval. 

    The proposal is part of a major policy reform, as envisaged in the National Education Policy adopted by the Centre last year.

    “Model public universities for holistic and multidisciplinary education, at par with IITs, IIMs, etc., called MERUs (Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities) will be set up and will aim to attain the highest global standards in quality education,” says the NEP. 

    “Moving to a multi-disciplinary regime of higher education is a key theme in the NEP and ball will be set rolling with the approvals of the MERUs,” said an official in the higher education department.

    Plans are also afoot to establish and strengthen departments in languages, literature, music, philosophy, Indology, art, dance, theatre, education, mathematics, statistics, pure and applied sciences, sociology, economics, sports, translation and interpretation, and other such subjects at all institutes of higher education. 

    Even engineering institutions, such as IITs, will move towards more holistic and multidisciplinary education with more arts and humanities, the NEP says.

    Officials pointed out that the idea is to “phase out single-stream higher education institutes over time while all institutes will be pushed to move towards becoming vibrant multidisciplinary institutions or parts of vibrant multidisciplinary HEI clusters, in order to enable and encourage high-quality multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary teaching and research across fields.”

  • CBSE restructures affiliation system; process to be completely digital with least human intervention

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is restructuring the affiliation system for schools and making the process completely digital and based on data analytics with least human intervention, officials said.

    The new system, which will come into effect from March 1, has been restructured as per various recommendations for systemic reforms laid down in the new National Education Policy (NEP).

    “The board is restructuring the affiliation system and process as per recommendations of education reforms in the NEP.

    Although, the CBSE affiliation system has been online since 2006, the restructured system will be completely digital and based on data analytics with least human intervention,” CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi said.

    “The restructuring will help in establishing ease of doing business in the CBSE affiliation system, attaining the goal of minimum government, maximum governance, automated and data driven decisions, achieve transparency, bring more accountability in the entire systemic processes and achieve quick and time-bound disposal of all applications,” he added.

    Tripathi said the board will soon come out with detailed guidelines on the restructured system.

    “A detailed document on the CBSE affiliation system containing the restructured online procedure for affiliation, documents required for affiliation application, modalities and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for inspection, guidelines for the inspection committee, videos for various process, will be released soon,” he said.

    The board has also revised timelines for application process as per the restructured system.

    As per the revised timeline, every year the application window for fresh affiliation and upgradation of affiliation will open three times -March 1 to 31, June 1 to 30 and September 1 to 30.

    “The application for extension of affiliation will be accepted from March 1 to May 31 every year.

    Other applications such as those for additional subject, section increase, change of name of school, change of society or trust, will be accepted through the year,” Tripathi said.

    Procuring digital signatures of a school from authorised service provider or AADHAAR-based signatures; uploading mandatory documents such as no objection certificate, land certificate, safety certificate and certificate by district education officer, are among the prerequisites for application for affiliation.

    “After the online submission of application, details submitted by the school will be analysed in accordance with the CBSE by-laws and inspection committee will be constituted immediately for the purpose of inspection.

    Schools will be able to get inspection done on any of the dates mentioned in the letter,” he said.

    The CBSE had introduced a facility for virtual inspection of schools for upgradation of affiliation in August last year in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The board is also in the process of setting up a facilitation centre to address queries, and problems of schools and inspection committees related to the virtual inspection.

    The board had revamped its norms in 2018 for granting affiliation to schools, leaving the onus of the infrastructural audit on states and limiting its own role to academic quality monitoring.

    The CBSE has 24,930 schools affiliated to it across the country and abroad, with over 2 crore students and more than 10 lakh teachers.

    The affiliation by-laws were formulated in the year 1998.

  • PM Modi on NEP 2020: Learn the highlights of Prime Minister’s address on National Education Policy, Ministry of Education and UGC organized

    New Delhi:Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to deliver the inaugural address in a conference held today, August 7, related to the recently announced new National Education Policy 2020. The Prime Minister is addressing the conference ‘Conclave on Transformational Reforms in Higher Education under National Education Policy’ organized in National Education Policy on proposals related to higher education. The conference is being jointly organized by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (renamed Ministry of Education) and University Grants Commission – UGC (renamed Higher Education Commission of India – HEIC). In this conference, Education Minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre and Chairman of the committee that formulated the National Education Policy. Kasturirangan was also present. Let us know the main points of the Prime Minister’s address on the proposals for higher education in the National Education Policy: –

    Highlights of Prime Minister’s address

    • The Prime Minister congratulated the Education Minister, UGC and the members of the committee that formulated the National Education Policy, including the new education policy. He also welcomed all the Vice Chancellors.
    • NEP 2020 has been approved after three to four years of brainstorming on millions of suggestions.
    • There was no issue of partiality regarding NEP, which fulfills the desire of the people to change.
    • As for political will, I am fully with you
    • Every country goes ahead by combining its education policy with its national goals. The education system of the country should keep future ready for future generations. This thinking is the basis of national education policy. This is the policy framing the new Bharati. 
    • It fulfills the education policy which the youth of the country needs in the new century. 
    • Emphasis has been laid on empowering the citizens of India. Students will be able to play a constructive role in nation building as per the requirements of the new time.
    • The old education policy involved the youth in sheepskin. If youth do not have Passion and Philosophy and Purpose of Education in education, then the objective is not fulfilled. 
    • NEP resolves the questions raised about the old policy while making 2020. 
    • It was very important that India’s education change itself. 
    • It was necessary to bring school education to 5 + 3 + 3 + 4 instead of 10 + 2
    • It is better because the children have the same language of home and language of study. That’s why up to 5th grade
    • Children are allowed to study in their language, so that their foundation is strengthened. 
    • This education policy emphasizes ‘how to think’, whereas the old policy had a ‘what to think’ emphasis.
    • Every student should get an opportunity to complete his passion. Join your favorite course and leave if needed. Many times students are inconvenienced due to not being according to the course job. Keeping this in mind, the option of multiple entry and multiple exit has been given in the new policy. This will allow students to join the desired degree or course and leave the current course.
    • National education policy is going to play an important role in ending the gap in research and education.
    • Today is the demand of innovation. It is important that our institutions inspire it. For this, it is necessary to empower higher education institutions. This can be achieved by autonomy.The new policy promotes autonomy to give good quality education more freedom. 
    • As the National Education Policy is implemented, higher education institutions will get more autonomy.