NEP will make students, youths ready to build empowered India: Odisha CM

NEW DELHI: The National Education Policy, 2020 would help in preparing students and youths for building a modern and empowered India, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said on Tuesday. Majhi, while inaugurating a three-day national workshop on the NEP, said it will play an important role in realising the goal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to build a ‘viksit Bharat’ (developed India).

The policy would help in creating a strong infrastructure and provide quality education at the primary level, he said. The NEP will be implemented in Odisha from the next academic year, Majhi said. “The use of technology in imparting education will be enhanced. Providing education through technology will become an integral part of our academic system,” the chief minister said.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, speaking on the occasion, said Odisha is going to be a model for the entire nation in bringing reforms to the education system. Both the Centre and the Odisha government are working together in that direction, he said. After the BJP formed government in the eastern state, concrete steps have been taken on the implementation of the NEP “in letter and spirit”, the minister said. Majhi said ‘Sishu Vatikas’ will be opened in the state to provide preschool education to children. For this, robust infrastructure will be created in the coming years, he said.

Focus on teacher appointments

The Odisha government will also give emphasise the appointment of more teachers, and content preparation of textbooks and other teaching aids. He said his government has already started taking steps to strengthen the infrastructure of primary education in the state. One school in each panchayat is being developed as a model school under the 'Godabarish Mishra Adarsh Prathamika Vidyalaya Yojana’, the chief minister said.

In an effort to reduce the dropout rate of tribal students, the state government has launched the 'Madho Singh Hath Kharch Yojana', he added. School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond said with the implementation of the NEP, students can learn in their mother tongue along with other languages. Besides, focus will also be on vocational education, digital education and the use of artificial intelligence at the school level, he said.

The state has recently signed an MoU with the Ministry of Education for the establishment of PM-SHRIs (PM ScHools for Rising India) in Odisha. In the first phase, 450 PM-SHRI schools will be set up, Gond said. “We have requested the education ministry to sanction additional PM-SHRI schools for Odisha. This will strengthen the school infrastructure in the state,” Gond said.