New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday addressed the policymakers and educators virtually on the occasion of the one-year completion of the National Education Policy 2020. The PM has unveiled several new initiatives, highlighting the role of the new education policy in the country's development and growth.
PM Modi said that India will celebrate the 75th year of India's Independence and the formulation and implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) is also a part of the celebration. The NEP is a key component in the country's drive to achieve the goal of "Atma Nirbhar Bharat" and termed the NEP as a modern initiative that is future-ready.
PM Modi highlighted the impact of Covid-19 on education and how the students adapted to the challenges. He said that the success of online education is now becoming the norm in the country. He highlighted the success of the Education Ministry's online portals of 'DIKSHA' and 'SWAYAM'. PM added that the DIKSHA portal has received 23,000 crore hits to date and it continues to get 5 crore daily hits.
Prime Minister Modi highlighted the needs and aspiration of the 21st-century youth, who now wants freedom and exposure. He said that the youths from small rural villages and semi-urban centres are now striving hard and some of them are representing India in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics. He added that India's youth are now focusing on art and culture, robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, etc. India's startup ecosystem is also getting revolutionized and the 'Digital India' movement is gaining speed in the country.
"The new National Education Policy assures the youth that the country is complete with them and with their spirits. The programme of artificial intelligence (AI) launched now will also make our youngsters future-oriented and will create a way for AI-driven economy," he said.
Some of the initiatives launched part of the NEP 2020 are as follows:-
- 'Vidya Pravesh', a curriculum created by NCERT. It's a three-month preparatory module that focuses on numerical and alphabetic literacy.
- National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) and National Digital Education Architecture (NDEA) to provide a digital and technical framework.
- Academic Bank of Credits will offer multiple entries and exit options in the higher studies. Students can pick any subject or stream of their choice without any fear.
- SAFAL assessment framework for CBSE students will remove the fear of exams among the students and will use Artificial Intelligence to evaluate the knowledge of students.
- Foreign universities will be allowed to enter India's higher education sector. Proposal to scrap UGC and AICTE.
- Option of continuing education in mother language in colleges and education. Eight states and 14 engineering colleges now have the regional language medium including Hindi, Tamil, Telegu, Marathi, and Bangla.
- Engineering courses will be translated into 11 regional languages. Online courses on AI in a regional language is also available. This will help to overcome the language divide in the country and will allow students from rural communities to pursue higher education without the language barrier.
- Primary education will also focus on the mother language. While the playschool concepts will be implemented in every corner of India as a universal programme.
- Indian Sign Language will now be a language subject. 3 Lakh students are already using the Indian Sign Language.
- NISHTHA 2.0 programme will help educators and teachers to upgrade their skill sets.
- PM Modi has also announced 27% reservation for OBC, 10% for EWS all-India medical admissions.
