BENGALURU: Speaking on the State Budget, Bengaluru University Vice-Chancellor Dr KR Venugopal said that a simple allocation of money towards the National Education Policy 2020 will not be enough as the policy is a continuous, multidisciplinary process.
“The NEP cannot be treated in isolation, rather it is a change of course of action. The implementation of the policy comes when there’s an abundance of resources. Training of teachers takes resources, building up good schools and infrastructure takes resources. Different aspects of the NEP come from the collaboration of other governmental departments, so allocating money only for the policy will not work,” he told TNIE. Further, he said that educational policy and economic growth and development are closely related and can never work in isolation.
“If you have a good education, literacy, good employment skills, knowledge, then that leads to economic growth wherein the manufacturing sector grows, along with the service sector and the production sector. This is how the culture in a particular country changes,” he told TNIE.
Similarly, he said that the current budget gives importance to students from classes 9 to 12, in order to give them a skill-based education. “It’s a good thing that the state government has allocated money for schools. Strengthening of schools must come first, a good education at the school level reduces the dependency at higher levels. If there are no good skills inculcated in high school, then there’s not a lot you can do in college,” he said.
Taking the example of skill-based education given in Japan, he said that students become employable right out of high school so that they are able to earn at an early age. “You must make everyone employable at a younger age because it also reduces the amount of burden on a student when they attend college since they can earn while they learn. You do not have to spend your entire time at college,” he said.
Shedding light on the reasoning for the up-gradation of certain engineering colleges, he said that it was vital to be able to tie with foreign universities to give students a chance to be able to transfer credits abroad as part of the Academic Bank of Credits implemented as part of the NEP.