The Gujarat government on Wednesday said that the new National Education Policy (NEP) stating that this will help further improve the quality of education in the state. The Opposition, however, said that it will adversely affect the state’s standard of education.
Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said that he welcomes the new NEP and that it will benefit students in Gujarat the most as it has been prepared keeping students as the focal point. Principal Secretary Education Anju Sharma said, “We will explore how to make the best use of the National Education Policy to further develop higher education in the state.”
The new National Education Policy (NEP), which focuses on overhauling the school curriculum and ushering in key reforms in higher education, was approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Manish Doshi in a statement said that the new policy will promote commercialisation of education and a reduction in expenditure on education coupled with a reduction in scholarships, especially for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students.
Congress has been repeatedly blaming the state government for delay in scholarships in schools and colleges.
Read also: 179 professional colleges shut down, highest in last 9 years
Referring to the semester system provisioned in the NEP, the GPCC spokesperson said, “The NEP promotes semester system whereas the Gujarat government had to scrap it in the year 2016-17 following representations by educational institutions and parents since its implementation in 2011,” Manish Doshi said.
The semester system in Class IX till XII was scrapped following repeated demands raised from students, parents and schools.
Talking about the language lab mentioned in the NEP to encourage languages at the state level, Doshi said it is a farce. “Computers are not being used in government schools in Gujarat in the absence of computer teachers as there was no appointment of computer teachers since the last four years. , colleges are without teachers and no physical education teachers in schools. The recently declared Gujarat education board’s Class X and XII results of Languages, Mathematics and Science are worrisome,” he told this paper.
NEP has a provision of research on languages and medium of instruction till Class 5, and preferably till Class 8, to be mother tongue or regional language.
A large number of state Board’s class X students had failed in Gujarati subject and the state government had itself also declared Gujarati subject mandatory in private schools across all boards, which the state government failed to implement in totality.
“The level of education in Gujarat is falling. Till 1995, Gujarat was on the ninth position in education but in 2016-17 it plunged to 19th rank.” Doshi added.
Courtesy: The Indian Express
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.