New Delhi: A day after Union Cabinet approved the National Education Policy (NEP), Union HRD Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Thursday (July 30) said the NEP 2020 will completely overhaul the country's education system.
In an exclusive conversation with Zee News, the HRD minister said that the new education policy will not only strengthen the basic education but will also develop children's mental faculty to prepare them for global competition.
Ramesh Pokhriyal said, "We have placed more emphasis on arithmetic, çonsidering the opinion of scientists that 85% of brain development of kids takes place in the age of 3 to 6 years," adding "We have also decided to do away with 10+ 20 system and introduce 360-degree holistic evaluation."
"Our goal is to connect 100% children with the education system till 12th, as the new education policy aims at fulfilling the vision of a new India," said Dr Pokhriyal.
We have proposed vocational education from class 6, provision of the internship so that when a child completes class 12th, he should be skillful, according to the HRD minister.
The NEP has also proposed a credit bank for higher education, and students will also have the facility of DG Locker to keep their degrees. The students used to go abroad for education but now they will be able to avail that education in the country, Nishank added.
He said, "there will a commission for higher education, under which UGC, AITC, and NCT will function," adding "we have already started new things like online education, but the new curriculum will be developed by a new committee."
"Those who are raising questions about this new education policy, I would like to tell them that we held an extensive consultation with people from different walks of life which has no parallel in the world," the HRD Minister said.
"It was not formulated in the four walls of a room, but suggestions were invited from more than 1.5 lakh village committees, besides consulting teachers, students, parents, MPs, MLAs, and even village representatives," he said.
"So far, the practice has been that there would no board from class 1 to 10 and every student will be promoted to the next class. It has been observed that children of 10th standard do not have basic knowledge of arithmetic, and they cannot even read or write. Children were pushed forward without evaluation, but who will take the responsibility to reform it?" Nishank added.
The draft for new education policy was also put in the public domain and we received more than two lakh suggestions that were incorporated after making two secretariats to come out with a new National Education Policy, the HRD Minister concluded.
