New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the inaugural address at the Higher Education Conclave through video-conferencing on Friday. Modi mentioned that the National Education Policy (NEP) was approved after extensive deliberations over 3-4 years and brainstorming over lakhs of suggestions. He noted that healthy debate and discussions are taking place on NEP across the country.
The policy, revamped after 34-years, aims at making future-ready youths while focussing on the national values and goals.
PM said that the policy lays the foundation of the New India and the 21st Century India. He also stressed upon the education and skills needed for the youth to strengthen India and to advance it to new heights of development. He also mentioned that it will further empower the citizens of India to make them suitable for maximum opportunities.
According to him, the education system remained unchanged leading to lopsided priorities where people were focussing on either becoming a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer. He said there was no mapping of the interest, ability, and demand.
NEP also reflects the ideals of Rabindranath Tagore on Education, which aims at bringing our lives in harmony with all the existence. He said, “a holistic approach was needed, which the national education policy has achieved successfully.”
He highlighted the need for change in India’s education system. “Higher education institutions need to be empowered through autonomy,” he added.
Modi put forward the two-argument looming over the autonomy of higher education institutions. “One says that everything should be done strictly under government control, while the other says that all institutions should get autonomy by default,” he stated.
Speaking on the path leading to quality education, he said, “The first opinion comes out of mistrust towards non-government institutions while autonomy is treated as an entitlement in the second approach. Good quality education lies somewhere in the middle of these two opinions.”
Earlier, the union ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal and Prakash Javadekar presented the NEP 2020 after it got a nod from the union cabinet. It was Modi’s first appearance on the new policy.
