Press Statement by Shri D. Ramakrishna Rao, All India President, Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan
After consultation for six long years with academia, intelligentsia, thinkers, education leaders, administrators, other stake holders including responses geographically from more than a lakh villages, and by conducting seminars, workshops, holding discussions at every level, much awaited National Educational Policy – 2020 was approved by the Government of India and is available in the public domain. Of course it has very important path breaking and transformatory change which needs much of an applause and appreciation. The new NEP appears to be providing direction for holistic, integrated, comprehensive and all inclusive high quality education without neglecting 21st century skills and value-based man making education. Vidya Bharti sincerely welcomes the NEP-2020 to the public and it believes that every policy has got to succeed with peoples involvement, participation and follow up action.
Some key measures include transforming curricular and pedagogical structure of school education (5 + 3 + 3 + 4) aiming holistic education from pre-school to XII standard integrated with vocational education.
Early childhood care and education is being streamlined and systematized for becoming the foundation of learning without neglecting continued health care, nutrition, developing crucial self-help skills and supervised play-based education which is a revolutionary step for bringing 10 lakh Anganwadis catering to 7 crores of children also under main stream education.
To reduce dropout rates, scope of school education is to be broadened to facilitate multiple pathways to learning involving both formal and non-formal modes is very much an attractive feature.
Equitable and inclusive education to all with a special focus on socio-economic disadvantaged groups and separate strategies to reduce gaps in school education is a remarkable one.
Focussing on competencies, learning objectives, integration of subjects, development of scientific temper, digital literacy and promotion of multi-lingual teaching with a thrust on Indian languages giving a scope for core essentials and experiential learning is to prepare a child not only for the present but also for future.
Transforming the guidelines of assessment to make it easier and providing holistic progress card with multidimensional parameters is quite innovative.
Everybody was looking for reformation in teacher education for which this NEP-20 provides many detailed clues giving us a hope that new and comprehensive national curriculum framework for teacher education would come up very early by 2021.
Much expected changes have been brought in higher education. 4 years under graduate degrees with multiple entry and exit option is to come up. Happy to hear that ‘light but tight’ regulation by a single regulator is to be in place.
It is pleasure to welcome a quality academic research in all fields through a new national research foundation.
I hope that the vision of India’s new education system has been carefully crafted by learning from the past, understanding present challenges and future needs. On the whole transformatory measures could be seen in the policy. Right from NEP-68, the problem is with implementation. Vidya Bharathi shall extend its support and request all the concerned, interested, educationists, academicians and educational administrators, for contributing in the area of their interest to achieve the desired objective.
Once again we congratulate the government for their best efforts in the national interest.