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Business News/ Education / News/  Govt set to unveil national policy on education on Monday
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Govt set to unveil national policy on education on Monday

Govt will upload the main thoughts behind the new policy on its official website under 33 heads for feedback

Though 33 areas of the education sector will be covered under the proposed policy, quality, skill and technology adoption will be the main themes, said an official. Photo: Hemant Mishra/MintPremium
Though 33 areas of the education sector will be covered under the proposed policy, quality, skill and technology adoption will be the main themes, said an official. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

New Delhi: The Union government will unveil the broad contours of a national policy on education (NPE) on Monday that will shape the country’s education and employability ecosystem for the next several years. The broad contours of the policy, which comes after 29 years, will be uploaded on www.mygov.in, the official website that sources ideas and suggestions on key policy initiatives from the general public, at least three human resource development (HRD) ministry officials said. All requested not to be named.

To begin with, on 26 January, it will upload the main thoughts behind the new education policy under 33 heads and invite feedback from experts, industry and the common people.

“After the 1986 education policy, the country has not got a new national education document. The new education policy will try to set the road map for the sector," said one of the three officials. The official, however, said the final draft may come over the next six to 10 months after the HRD ministry conducts detailed consultations with all the stakeholders.

Though 33 areas of the education sector will be covered under the proposed policy, quality, skill and technology adoption will be the main themes, the second official said. “The education system will set the tone of India’s competitiveness as a young demography, help the ‘Make in India’ mission of the country and keep in mind the ‘Digital India’ thrust given by PM Narendra Modi," the second official said, adding that the skill, scale and quality will get its due emphasis in the new education policy.

India got it first national policy on education in 1968 under PM Indira Gandhi. The second policy came in 1986 under PM Rajiv Gandhi. While the 1968 document set the 10+2+3 education model in the country, the 1986 one had its focus on access. “Quality of education and outcome-based model will be key in the upcoming one," the third government official said, adding that even the 12th Five Year Plan document had called for improving the quality of education—both school and higher education.

This time, the HRD ministry wants to do consultations “both top-down and bottom-up" before finalizing the final draft. As part of top-down approach, it will seek feedback through www.mygov.in, and a conference of education ministers over the next one month. As part of the bottom-up approach, consultations will happen from the village panchayat level upward.

“For the school education sector, village education committees will start consultations and for higher education, it will start from the block level," the first official said, adding that Sarva Shikha Abhiyan and Right to Education Act will be key areas on which response will be sought from grass roots level. “All states will be taken on board and in February, this is scheduled to happen," the first official said.

Ministry officials said student assessments to evaluate teaching-learning environment, ranking and rating of schools, colleges and varsities, leadership development, internationalization will be other key areas.

The officials quoted above said there is a realization that a systemic change is required to uplift the sector. The recent Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) by education non-profit Pratham said over the last 10 years, things have not improved. Though access has improved, learning outcome is a challenge. In one of the indicators, ASER found every second Class 5 student in rural India can’t read texts of Class 2 level. Similarly, universities have been lagging in global rankings and none of them are in the top 200 of top global universities, a prickly point for a country that aims to become a knowledge superpower. “It is time a diverse group of people including political leaders and administrators come together to brainstorm and develop a road map for systematic reform. It can be done, provided there is political will, administrative readiness and social pressure," wrote educationist Vimala Ramachandran in an essay in the ASER report.

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Published: 26 Jan 2015, 12:25 AM IST
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