New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that National Education Policy (NEP) is the beginning of a new era in school education and urged all stakeholders to come together to implement it by 2022 when the nation celebrates its 75th year of Independence.
“The New education policy will sow the seeds for starting a new era, will give new direction to 21st century India,” PM Modi said while addressing the conclave on ‘School Education in 21st Century’ organised by the Ministry of Education as a part of Shiksha Parv (festival of education).
During his address, the PM said that NEP addresses the big issue of marksheet driven education dominating in place of learning driven education in the country. He said that the marksheet has now become like a “mental pressure” sheet. Removing this stress from education is one of the main objectives of the National Education Policy, he said.
He said instead of a mark sheet, the National Education Policy has proposed for a holistic report card which will be a detailed sheet of unique potential, aptitude, attitude, talent, skills, efficiency, competency and possibilities of the students. He added that a new National Assessment Center “Parakh” will also be established for the overall improvement of the evaluation system.
The PM added that a lot has changed in the country in the last three decades but the education system needs to be updated. He stressed on the importance of replacing the old 10 Plus 2 with the system of 5 Plus 3 Plus 3 Plus 4 under the policy. He said now playful education of the pre-school which is limited to private schools in cities will also reach villages once this policy is implemented.
#NationalEducationPolicy is a means of fulfilling new expectations and new requirements of a #NewIndia; Behind it, is the hard work of people of every field, every language for last 4-5 years: PM @narendramodi #NEP2020 #ShikshakParv pic.twitter.com/lL4DSXGXqH
— PIB India (@PIB_India) September 11, 2020
He emphasized that focus on basic education is the most important aspect of this policy. Under the Policy, the development of foundational literacy and numeracy will be taken as a national mission, he said.
“The child should go ahead and read to learn, for that it is necessary that in the beginning he should learn to read. This development journey from learn to read to read to learn will be completed through foundational literacy and numeracy,” he added.
The Prime Minister further said that it must be ensured that every child who crosses the third grade can easily read 30 to 35 words in a minute. He added that this will help him in understanding the content of other subjects with ease.
He said that it is in preschool where children begin to understand their senses, their skills better. NEP 2020 focuses on primary-level education for fun, playful, activity-based and discovery-based learning of the students, he said in his speech.
He said that behind the NEP is the hard work of people of every field, every language for last 4-5 years.
As the child progresses, it is very necessary to develop a greater learning spirit, scientific and logical thinking, mathematical thinking and scientific temperament, the PM added.
He said that within past one week, the Education Ministry has received over 15 lakh suggestions on its implementation.
Earlier on September 7, the PM had talked about the higher education part of the NEP during a conclave on ‘transformational reforms in higher education’.
In today’s speech, PM also listed out the 21st-century skills- Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Curiosity and Communication. He said that students should learn coding from the beginning, understand Artificial Intelligence, join Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Data Science and Robotics.
In addition to this, PM said that early education should be in the mother tongue like in most other countries. “Otherwise when children hear something in another language, they first translate it in their own language, then understand it,” he said.
“This creates great confusion in the child’s mind, it is very stressful. Therefore, as far as possible, keeping the local language, mother tongue, medium of education up to grade five, grade five at least, is stated in the National Education Policy,” he added.
The Shiksha Parv is being celebrated from September 8-25. Several webinars and conferences are taking place to discuss the action plan for the implementation of NEP 2020.
-ARK
