Union Education Minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting on the implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. During the meet, the education minister released an indicative and suggestive implementation plan for school education called ‘Students’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement through Quality Education or SARTHAQ. Pokhriyal said, SARTHAQ was launched in pursuance of the goals of NEP2020 and to assist States/UTs in this task. Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare, School Education Secretary Anita Karwal and other senior officials also attended the meeting today.
The minister said, “SARTHAQ will pave the way for children to meet the diverse national and global challenges of the present and the future. It help them to imbibe 21st-century skills along with India’s tradition, culture and value system as envisioned in National Education Policy 2020. SARTHAQ would benefit all stakeholders including 25 crore students, 15 lakh schools, 94 lakh teachers.”
“States and UTs are given the flexibility to adapt this plan with local contextualization and also modify as per their needs and requirements. This implementation plan delineates the roadmap and way forward for implementation of NEP, 2020 for the next 10 years, which is very important for its smooth and effective implementation,” the release said.
It also said, “SARTHAQ has been developed through wide and intensive consultative process with States and UTs, autonomous bodies and suggestions received from all stakeholders; around 7177 suggestions/inputs were received from them. A teacher’s fest, ‘ShikshakParv’ was specially organized from 8th to 25th September 2020 for discussing various recommendations of NEP 2020 and its implementation strategies, which attracted around 15 lakh suggestions.”
Pokhriyal said, “Like the policy itself, the plan is also interactive, flexible and inclusive. The major focus of SARTHAQ is to define activities in such a manner which clearly delineate goals, outcomes and timeframe i.e., it links the recommendation of NEP with 297 Tasks along with responsible agencies, timelines and 304 outputs of these tasks.”
He also said, “Attempt has also been made to propose activities in a manner, such that it will be built upon the existing structure rather than creating new structures. Thus, SARTHAQ takes care of the spirit and intent of the Policy and is planned to be implemented in a phased manner.”
COURTESY- THE MINT