Sisodia lauds move to rename HRD min

nNEW DELHI: The reforms and policies announced under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 on Wednesday evoked mixed responses from the teaching community and educationists across the city, while the Delhi government said it would study the changes before offering its opinion, though it welcomed the step to rename the Union ministry of human resource development as the ministry of education.

Changes include increased focus on multidisciplinary courses, multilingual and digital learning, a revised curricular structure, reduced course load, and a pre-primary education curriculum.

Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia, welcoming the Centre’s step to rename the Union HRD ministry as the ministry of education, said they will offer an opinion later. “National Education policy after so many years of wait is welcome step. But as I have said earlier, an education policy cannot be a compilation of all wishful thinking about education...its important to say ‘what we’ll do’ but it’s more important to tell ‘how we’ll do that”.

“We are studying #NEP announced today in greater detail. Will express our opinions tomorrow...” he tweeted.

Meeta Sengupta, an educationist, said, “The revised policy challenges schools and teachers to step up to the future. However, in some areas, the policy hasn’t done enough,” she said. “While the multidisciplinary approach and multiple entry-exit points in higher education are a welcome step, more work could have been done with respect to class 10 and 12 board exams by allowing students multiple options,” she said.

Addressing privacy concerns, Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu Public School in Rohini and governing body member, Central Board of Secondary Education, said any new development will have its own challenges and authorities will work towards it.

“The policy seems to be progressive and it also promotes home language, Indian knowledge system, culture, and values. Focus on early childhood development is appreciable and the 5+3+3+4 schooling structure instead of the previous 10+2 system will ensure a strong base of early childhood care,” she said.