‘Need to merge education with 21st-century ideas’: PM Modi on New Education Policy

LUCKNOW:  Laying stress on result-oriented research supplemented with relevant database and matching the global standards, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday exhorted India’s educationists to lay a concrete roadmap to implement New Education Policy-2020.

He urged them to work for modifying higher education in such a way that coming generations can quench their thirst for knowledge, pursue their interests and get prepared to take control of the country in future.

Flanked by Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Modi was speaking after inaugurating the three-day Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam (All India Education Convention) in Varanasi. The PM was on a day-long visit to his parliamentary constituency on Thursday.

The convention, in which 400 educationists are participating, has been organised by the Union Education Ministry along with the University Grants Commission and Banaras Hindu University. It is set to discuss the roadmap to implement the NEP to bring about substantial changes in higher education system.

While states like Tamil Nadu have opposed NEP-2020, saying it would impose Hindi on students, most BJP-ruled states, including UP, have adopted it.

The Policy is recommendatory and leaves it to the discretion of the state to accept it, reject it or bring about suitable changes.

Emphasizing on ‘lab-to-land’ and ‘land-to-lab’ studies to make the research worthwhile, Modi said the aim of the NEP is to bring education out from the limits of narrow thought-process and to integrate it with the modern ideas of the 21st century.

“We just don’t have to prepare youth with degrees, it is imperative to ensure that along with it, our education policy also contributes to the nation while preparing significant human resources to take the nation forward,” he said.

Referring to the handling of the pandemic, Modi said not only did the country recover rapidly from it but also joined the galaxy of one of the fastest-growing economies of the world.

“We are the world’s third largest startup ecosystem,” he observed.

He also discussed the major infrastructural overhaul done in the education sector to prepare it for NEP, and cited the example of scores of medical, engineering and management colleges coming up in India, unlike the British era education policy which meant only government jobs.

Earlier in the day, during his first visit to Varanasi after the UP Assembly elections, Modi also inaugurated the Akshaya Patra Mid-Day Meal Kitchen which will have the capacity to prepare meals for one lakh students of state primary schools.

The PM concluded his visit by inaugurating 31 projects worth Rs 558 crore and laying the foundation of 13 new development projects costing Rs 1,220 crore, before addressing a public meeting at Sampurnanand Sports stadium.