BENGALURU: To start implementing the major reforms in the primary and higher education brought in by the Centre, Karnataka needs to set in place two major requirements- - Right people with some familiarity to start the work and a certain level of finances. “There are a number of things you can do, there is no discovery here, you need to do actual hardcore action,” Dr Kasturirangan, Chairman of the committee that drafted the New Education Policy (NEP), told TNIE on Wednesday.
He said that Karnataka already had an education policy which was formulated when he was the chairman of the Knowledge Commission. Now, they only need to rework the essentials to ensure it’s updated, he said.For starters, he said, the State can focus on properly reconfiguring Anganwadis and pre-primary schools towards the Early Childhood Care and Education, which mandates free safe and high quality education for children of ages 3-6.
Welcoming the NEP, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Higher Education Dr C N Ashwathnarayan said, “Once the final policy is released by the Centre, the Karnataka government will work expeditiously to bring about the transformational changes and implement them.”
Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar, too, said the State government welcomed the NEP that is based on the principles of ‘Teach to Transform, Educate to Empower, Learn to Lead’.
Various universities, too, seem to have received the NEP well. Venugopal K R, Vice Chancellor, Bangalore University, said, “The NEP aims to shift the commercial education concept to charitable activity. It aims to increase the public investment on education from 10% to 20% and encourage philanthropic private funding.”
M S Reddy, Special Officer at Maharani Cluster University (MCU) said the MCU will join hands with the State government’s Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood Department to start PG, diploma and certificate courses from the academic year 2020-21 in a phased manner.