Need to merge education with 21st century ideas

By Our Special Correspondent

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked India's educationists to come up with a concrete roadmap for implementing the new Education Policy-2020, stressing on results-based research aligned with relevant databases and matching global standards.

He urged efforts to reform higher education in such a way that future generations can quench their thirst for knowledge, pursue their passions and prepare to rule the country in the future.

Modi was speaking after inaugurating the three-day Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam (All India Education Conference) in Varanasi along with Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The Prime Minister is on a day-long visit to his parliamentary constituency on Thursday.

The conference was organized by the Union Ministry of Education along with the University Grants Commission and Banaras Hindu University in which 400 academicians participated. It is ready to discuss the roadmap to implement the NEP to bring about significant changes in the higher education system.

While states like Tamil Nadu opposed the NEP-2020, saying it would impose Hindi on students, most BJP-ruled states, including UP, embraced it.

The policy is recommended and it is left to the discretion of the State to accept, reject or make appropriate changes.

Stressing on 'lab-to-land' and 'land-to-lab' studies to make research worthwhile, Modi said the aim of NEP is to bring education out of the confines of narrow thought process and integrate it. Modern ideas for the 21st century.

"We don't need to prepare the youth with degrees, besides, it is imperative to ensure that our education system also contributes to the country, prepares substantial human resources to take the country forward," he said.

Referring to the handling of the pandemic, Modi said the country not only recovered from it quickly but also joined the galaxy of one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

“We are the world’s third largest startup ecosystem,” he observed.

He also discussed the major infrastructural work done in education for the NEP and cited the example of coming up of medical, engineering and management colleges in India in contrast to the British-era education system, which meant only government jobs.

Earlier in the day, during his first visit to Varanasi after the UP Assembly elections, Modi also inaugurated the Akshayapatra mid-day meal kitchen, which has the capacity to prepare meals for one lakh students in the state's primary schools.

Before addressing a public meeting at the Purmananand Sports Stadium, Rs. 558 crores to initiate 31 projects and Rs. The Prime Minister ended his visit by laying the foundation stones of 13 new development projects worth Rs 1,220 crore.