Agartala: The first zonal level consultation meeting of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) for framing new education policy, chaired by Union HRD minister Smriti Irani, began at Agartala this morning which saw the participation of all eight northeastern states .
All top 10 officials of the ministry and 32 officials of all northeastern states, including Education Ministers of Tripura Tapan Chakraborty, Manipur — M Okendra and Sikkim — R B Subba attended the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, Irani said the existing education policy of India was framed in 1992 and afterwards in 2009 Right to Education Act has come into being.
The Narendra Modi led NDA government has launched national skill development mission, which made alteration in education policy of the county, she said.
“We have for the first time undertaken grassroot level consultation involving all stakeholders for framing the education policy. We are expecting that state level consultation with regard to policy formulation will be completed by November and subsequently, after detail exercise of all the recommendations emerging out from the grass root level, the final policy will be framed, which will be effective from next year” Irani pointed out.
She, however, pointed out that Centre was serious about upgradation of education infrastructure in the country and would invest more in the sector for a vibrant future.
Despite a number of problems in education framework, Indians were still leading across the globe, she said.
‘’It is observed that quality of education in Indian schools and colleges were broadly customised in private and public management,’’ she said, adding that the government was sincere in reducing the perception that private institutes were good and government institutes are bad or average. ‘’Universalisation of education by policy intervention is the ultimate target of the central government and states are also taken on board’’ she added.
According to plan, MHRD will hold at least six zonal level meetings across the county to get opinions or suggestions of the states from the grassroot level stakeholders.
Finally, national education policy will be framed to cater the demand of today’s India, she said.
In the meeting, the northeastern states unitedly voiced to increase allocation and support to the state governments so that they can compete with the privately run educational institutions to ensure equal quality and scope of education for all sections of the society.
Tripura education minister Tapan Chakraborty asked to priorities the education sector and to invest at least 6 per cent of GDP in the sector along with expanding the ambit of Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act covering pre-primary and higher secondary level.
“The new education policy must reduce the syllabus for the school children and attach more importance to skill development activities considering the level of the students, their interests and the future demands,”Chakraborty said, adding more time should be given to students for physical exercise. (UNI)
