NEP for multidisciplinary education, says Venkaiah

CHENNAI: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a “visionary document” that recognises the importance of liberal arts and focuses on a multidisciplinary approach in education.

In his address here after virtually inaugurating the Moturi Satyanarayana Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences at KREA University, he also called for more institutions to explore offering interdisciplinary courses.

“The National Education Policy 2020 is a visionary document that recognises the importance of liberal arts and focuses on a multidisciplinary approach in education in tune with contemporary times.”

“It aims at de-compartmentalising Indian education and breaking the rigid and artificial barriers between professional vs liberal education,” Naidu said.

As NEP rightly points out, even in ancient times, ‘good education’ was described as the knowledge of the 64 kalas or arts..

He noted that students pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics must get adequate exposure to liberal arts and social sciences in their undergraduate programmes.

Various assessments of such courses where humanities and arts are well integrated have shown an enhanced creativity and innovation, higher social and moral awareness, improved critical thinking, teamwork and communication skills among students, he said and pointed out that many engineering colleges were moving in this direction.

IIT Bombay has recently introduced an interdisciplinary undergraduate course that covers liberal arts, science and engineering in one programme, he said.

The VP appealed to parents to encourage and infuse in children curiosity for arts, literature and social sciences from a young age.