Guwahati, Sep 8: The Assam government will set up a state research foundation in line with the National Research Foundation as envisaged in the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020.
Attending a conference here on implementation of NEP 2020 in Assam as a follow up of the Varanasi Conclave, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the proposed research foundation was expected to promote innovative research with quantifiable outcome.
“We are committed to implement NEP 2020 for qualitative improvement of education. The fact that we have earmarked six per cent of the state’s GDP for education speaks volumes of our intent to develop our human resources”.
Outlining the state government’s plan and strategies for implementing NEP 2020, the chief minister said that as a part of the NEP 2020, government would take steps for enabling higher educational institutions to focus on experiential learning, integrating cross-curricular pedagogy and holistic education with focus on Indian knowledge system.
He also said that the government was also in the process of establishing a holistic governance framework to cover academic affairs with accountability, research and digitization.
“The department of higher education will collaborate with other related departments to develop skill and training modules to upskill the potential workforce for industry as per market requirements to help the students with the scope of startup ecosystem and entrepreneurial ventures,” he said.
Sarma further said that his government has decided to establish four nano-incubation centres at Bongaigaon, Silchar, Dibrugarh and Tezpur to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship.
“To incentivise faculty members to perform better, an annual performance appraisal index will be introduced in the state,” he said.
The chief minister also said that faculty members would be trained for capacity building to help students ‘not just as teachers, but also as mentors and guides’.
IANS