Draft National Education Policy ready: Javadekar

PANAJI: A panel tasked with preparing the new National Education Policy (NEP) has completed its work, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said here Saturday. He said the draft NEP would be handed over to the Central government “anytime from now”.
The Central government had constituted K Kasturirangan committee to prepare the draft for the new NEP 2017.
“The panel has prepared the draft of the policy which has five pillars namely accessibility, affordability, equity, quality and accountability”, the minister said.
He was speaking at the convocation ceremony of the Goa University here. “Our committee under K Kasturirangan today only said that the report is ready. They are ready to hand over the national educational policy at any day and any time”, he said at the function attended by Chancellor of Goa University and Goa Governor Mridula Sinha.
Javadekar said his ministry will frame a schedule for accepting and implementing the policy. “This will give a new feeling and a new direction to our education system. We have a long way to go”, he said.
The NEP is aimed at promoting education amongst the common people of the country.
The policy covers elementary to college education in both rural and urban India. The first NEP was promulgated in 1968 by the government of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the second by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1986.
Javadekar further rued that India lacked in research and innovation, “due to which, many things that are used in the country are foreign-made”.
“Indian researchers are everywhere in almost all innovations like iphone, Facebook, Twitter and even Whatsapp kind of Apps. But despite all this, we are just the contributor for innovation. We are not the owners of innovation which should change”, he said.
The minister said the culture of innovation should be introduced at the level of schools. (PTI)