the goan I network
PANAJI
Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) on Saturday said that the draft National Policy on Education (NPE) was ready, and the committee under the charimanship of K Kasturirangan, that had prepared it would hand it over to him as soon as a date was set. Speaking at the 31st Annual Convocation of Goa University held at Kala Academy, the Minister’s announcement came on the day of the deadline for the committee to prepare the draft policy. The Minister said that he had received a call from the committee, and had been informed that the policy was ready.
“The new education policy will give a new direction to our education system,” Javadekar said during his convocation address, while naming the five pillars of the policy: accessibility, affordability, equity, quality and accountability, saying that these were components that any country which a good education policy must have.
Giving a sneak peak into what the NPE could hold, Javadekar stressed on how the ultimate aim of education should be about producing good human beings who would be a boon to society. “Our focus is on outcome-based education,” he said. “While infrastructure is important, what about the product? Do students only think of themselves? Or do they help society to become more good? This is very important,” said the union Minister, who insisted that this would have to be a joint societal effort.
Talking about how the nation would not be able to progress without innovation, Javadekar said though we were proud of Indians being a part of teams that created many globally-used products, we had to remember that Indians were mostly contributors and not creators. However, he expressed hope that the 2019 Smart India Hackathon would see over a hundred new innovations which would have success stories. “We want to build a revolution,” said Javadekar.
Further, he spoke about learning outcomes alongside exams for students in their primary years of education. “We’re stressing on outcomes, teaching will be based on that,” he said, adding, “Quality, research and innovation is the most important.”
It will be recalled that December 15 was the fifth deadline given to the Kasturirangan committee, set up a year-and-a-half ago, to submit its draft NPE. The first deadline was last December.
This will be India’s third NPE after Independence, and the first one under the BJP-led government.
The last NPE was framed in 1986, with modifications made in 1992.
