New Education Policy is based on two principles: Indian knowledge system and addressing global challenges. The next 30 years are crucial as it gives us demographic dividend and our government is working to maximise that advantage, education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.
The union education minister said that the last nine years of the Modi government have been transformative for the health and education sector. He was speaking during the release of a report on these sectors. The report has been prepared by the BJP think tank, Public Policy Research Centre. PPRC is releasing a series of reports on the nine years of the Modi government.
Elaborating on the principles of the education policy, Pradhan said, “Our new education policy has been founded after 34 years. It has taken into account our knowledge system.”
“India is a knowledge-based nation, and the Indian knowledge system has never worked on rigid parameters. India has always changed with times, keeping context in mind. Our knowledge system keeps evolving, this is the essence of our education policy,” the minister said.
Pradhan added that the second aspect is based on the global requirement. “No one had heard about ChatGPT six months ago, now it’s a reality. We have AI and other advancements. It’s turning world geography into global villages. There is no company in the world which doesn’t have a back-end company in India. About 100 crore of India's 140 crore population is aged up to 35 years. There is this opportunity available to us for another 30 years, after which we will turn into an ageing population. Our youngsters work according to different time zones, based on the working hours of other countries. The world is increasingly relying on our programmes as they are shunning China.”
The union minister said there are many things that have happened for the first time under the new education policy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said all Indian languages are national languages of India and education be done in all languages.
“We have given importance to education in own language. PM said decolonize education, that’s what NEP aims for. We are also making children from the age of three years part of formal education; teaching learning material has been made.”
Highlighting the difference between the UPA and NDA regimes, Pradhan said, “During UPA regime I, Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya was built in every district which may total to over 700 to 750 schools. It’s a good school. But, the Modi government built 750 schools in the tribal block only.
Every tribal block with more than 50,000 population will have an Ekalavya school, built at a cost of Rs 45 crore. This is the difference.”
PPRC director Sumeet Bhasin made a presentation on the report. “One university has been set up every week and two colleges set up every day since BJP came to power in 2014. A secondary school has been made available every five kilometres, while the numbers of AIIMS have grown from 6 to 23, 7 new IIMs, and 7 new IITs have been set in the last nine years.”
Bhasin highlighted how the Modi government dealt with the health challenge during the Covid. “Despite the stiff challenge, India, not only remained resilient and managed an effective response, but, also emerged as a global role model.”
