PM unveils education schemes on NEP’s anniversary

THE ROLLING OUT OF SEVERAL SCHEMES WILL HELP ACHIEVE THE GOALS SET BY THE NEP, EDUCATION MINISTER SAID

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday unveiled several education schemes including an academic bank of credits for deposit, withdrawal and storage of academic credentials and flagged off engineering education in five regional languages, to mark the first anniversary of new National Education Policy (NEP).

“Options like multiple entry and exit will free students from the restrictions of staying in one class and one course. Similarly, modern technology based Academic Bank of Credit system will bring revolutionary change. This will give confidence to the student in choosing stream and subjects,” Modi said at an event marking one year of the NEP .

Prime Minister Modi also said 14 engineering colleges in eight states to start offering degrees in regional languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bengali. “A tool has been developed for translating engineering course in 11 languages. This emphasis on mother tongue as the medium of instruction will instil confidence in the students from poor, rural and tribal background,” said Modi.

Engineering education in Indian regional languages has been a key agenda of the education ministry and initially the ministry was pushing to do so through National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) but the move could not go through in 2020 or in 2021.

Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the rolling out of several schemes will help achieve the goals set by the NEP and improve quality of education both in school and higher education.

Other initiatives launched by the PM included Vidya Pravesh a three month play based school preparation module for Grade 1 students, Indian Sign Language as a Subject at secondary level, and NISHTHA 2.0 - an integrated teacher training programme designed by NCERT. SAFAL (Structured Assessment For Analyzing Learning Levels) - a competency based assessment framework for Grades 3, 5 and 8 in CBSE schools, and a website dedicated to Artificial Intelligence.