New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Conclave on “School Education in 21st Century” under the NEP 2020 here on Friday through video conference.
Prime Minister said that National Education Policy is going to give a new direction to 21st century India and we are becoming part of a moment that is laying the foundation for building the future of our country.
The Prime Minister said that the NEP 2020 is a result of hardwork of people from every region, every sector and every language in the last 3 to 4 years and urged the teachers to work together for an effective implementation of the National Education Policy.
PM stressed on the importance of advancing our students with 21st century skills and listed out the 21st century skills – Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Curiosity and Communication and said that students should learn coding from the beginning, understand Artificial Intelligence, join Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Data Science and Robotics.
The Prime Minister said it is legitimate that many questions arise after the announcement of the Policy and that it is necessary to discuss such issues in this conclave to move forward.
The Prime Minister said that over 1.5 million suggestions have been received within a week from teachers across the country on implementing the National Education Policy.
The Prime Minister said that energetic youth are the engines of development of a country but that their development should begin from their childhood. In the National Education Policy, Prime Minister stressed the importance of replacing the old 10 Plus 2 with the system of 5 Plus 3 Plus 3 Plus 4. He said now playful education of the pre-school which is limited to private schools in cities will also reach villages once this policy is implemented.
He emphasized that focus on basic education is the most important aspect of this policy. Under the National Education Policy, the development of foundational literacy and numeracy will be taken as a national mission.
The Prime Minister stressed on the need to increase easy and innovative methods. These experiments should be the core of our new age learning – Engage, Explore, Experience, Express and Excel.
PM Modi said the students engage in activities, events, projects according to their interest. Then children learn to express in a constructive way. Children should be taken on study tours to historical places, places of interests, to farms, industries etc, as it would give them practical knowledge.
The Prime Minister said that the National Education Policy has been formulated in such a way that syllabus can be reduced and focused on fundamental things. A National Curriculum Framework will be developed to make learning integrated and interdisciplinary, fun based and complete experience. Suggestions will be taken for this and recommendations and modern education systems of all will be included in it. The world of the future is going to be quite different from our world today.
The Prime Minister said that National education policy also addresses another big issue – marksheet driven education dominating in place of learning driven education in our country. The marksheet has now become like a mental pressure sheet. Removing this stress from education is one of the main objectives of the National Education Policy.
The Prime Minister said instead of a mark sheet the National Education Policy, has proposed for a holistic report card which will be a detailed sheet of unique potential, aptitude, attitude, talent, skills, efficiency, competency and possibilities of the students and added that a new National Assessment Center “Parakh” will also be established for the overall improvement of the evaluation system.
Prime Minister said that when 75 years of independence are completed in 2022, it is our collective responsibility to ensure that every student of India should read as per the National Education Policy. He called upon the cooperation of all the teachers, administrators, voluntary organizations and parents in this national mission.
