Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan calls National education policy 2020 'knowledge document' of 21st century

The Union minister attended a roundtable on implementing national education policy at Symbiosis International University in Maharashtra's Pune.

Speaking on the occasion Pradhan said, "National Education Policy 2020 is a knowledge document of the 21st century. It aims to promote the all-round development of an individual and aims to make education accessible to everyone."

He said, "India has become the epicentre of the knowledge-based economy and our contribution to the global economy is significant."

India's academic fraternity has a big role to play in ensuring a rightful place for India in the new world," the minister stressed.

"We are at the crossroads of an emerging new global order. How well we harmonize with technology and automation and acquire new skills will define our readiness for the future of work as well as for a leadership role in the emerging new global order," he explained.

"There is a huge opportunity for all of us here, especially for our academic community," he added.

Pradhan highlighted that India's education system had been rigid in the past but NEP 2020 has made it possible to make teaching and learning more vibrant, inclusive, flexible, and multi-disciplinary.

He further said that in the last 75 years, "We have been assertive and conscious about our 'rights' and now is the time to walk on the path of 'duties.' There can be no one better than our teachers' to drive home this point and shift the focus on performing duties and fulfilling responsibilities."

Online education is a new reality and the teaching fraternity must build new academic dynamics and come forward to developing quality e-learning content, developing SOPs to ensure online learning is not limited to exploitative market forces, and protecting against data imperialism, he said.

The Minister urged to create global citizens and meet global expectations in line with the NEP 2020.

"Our academic institutions must also ensure that they become 'instruments of knowledge and empowerment rather than being 'instruments of materialistic expectations'," he added. (ANI)