Centre open to views on new education policy: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

COIMBATORE (TN): The National Education Policy (NEP) is not a document containing few pages but has lot of new features for the benefit of students, said Union Education and Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan here on Saturday. Though education is in the concurrent list of the States, the Centre expects Tamil Nadu to accept NEP, he said.

The Union government is open to ideas and new methods when it comes to NEP, Pradhan said while addressing the 34th convocation of Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women in the city.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphatically said that all should learn mother tongue and the NEP will help to learn, read and write in mother tongue in foundational years, he said and added that the government has asked the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to publish books in all Indian languages from this academic year onwards.

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The holistic development of the children will be better if they study in mother tongue and India's education focuses on employability, empowerment and enlightenment, he said. Stating that technology was new disrupter, the Union Minister said millions of people use mobile phones.

"Internet and smart phones are basic requirements and we were dependent on foreign technologies like android or ios. However, IIT Madras has developed technology for the indigenous 5G a few days ago," he pointed out. Referring to COVID-19 vaccines, Pradhan said, "Indians have taken the vaccine, but no one in the world got certificate within a few seconds after taking it like our country. It is such type of technology we are developing in India."

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Highlighting about women empowerment, the Union Minister said, "Tamil Nadu is much more ahead of rest of the country and the State has highest number of working women in the country. India is the mother of democracy and Tamil Nadu the epicenter." During India's G20 Presidency this year, "I expect discussion and deliberation takes place about it in the university," he said.

Later, replying to a question on decreased budget allocation for NEP, the Union Minister said that it was a wrong information. "The government and Finance Ministry were extending full support to the new education policy and in the next budget more funds will be allocated," he said.