‘NEP will help children learn effectively, 2023 our target for textbooks’

The new National Education Policy (NEP), with its focus on imparting a strong foundation to students, can go a long way in ensuring lesser drop-outs, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) director Hrushikesh Senapaty has said. In an interview with

Senapaty also spoke about NCERT’S future plans. Edited excerpts:

Amandeep Shukla,

There is more focus on the multi-disciplinary approach. Another significant thing is the foundation...from the beginning, we can prepare our children. Like the literacy, numeracy mission, the government is focusing on this. It will help our children to learn effectively. Our foundation is often not strong and children, when they go to higher classes, drop out. If you are careful in the beginning, there will be no dropouts. That will bring a significant change in the educational scenario. This will be a game-changer. There is also a focus on vocational education. but in other regions, they are translated. It is not binding on states that they should use but most of them do. As per the new policy, the local flavour should also be there.

Definitely. The curriculum framework will be common. We will come out with a curriculum based on a process approved by the CABE [Central Advisory Board of Education that has] all state education ministers as members. The common core, constitutional values, and other things will all be there. But we should also take into account the local things particularly in social sciences so that the children of a particular area know about local history, local geography, etc.