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implement the numerous K-12 school reforms contained THEY SAID IT IN JULY
in the National Education Policy 2020. Strong emphasis
on early childhood care and education and foundational “I always say it is intellectually lazy for people
literacy and learning for all children in the 3-8 age group to advocate herd immunity, because basi-
by 2025, is the hard but preferable option to ensure that cally it is giving up. It is saying we do not want
talented school-leavers won’t need quotas and reserva- to work hard on this, we know it is a problem,
tions. let us just let everybody get sick and lots of
Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai)
people die. I don’t think that should be India’s
WEST BENGAL strategy. It is not good for the Indian people
NEP 2020 words war and it is not going to be good for the Indian
economy.”
Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health
he third national education policy (nep) 2020 Institute on the rapid spread of Covid-19 infections in
approved by the Union cabinet headed by prime India (The Hindu, July 9)
Tminister Narendra Modi after four years of prepa-
ration on July 29, replacing the 34-year-old National “Our motto has to be ‘even if we eat grass, we
Policy on Education legislated in 1986 by prime minis- have to give our children healthcare, nutrition
ter Rajiv Gandhi, has elicited mixed reactions across the and education’.”
country. Ananth Narayan, associate professor, SPJIMR, Mumbai
In West Bengal (pop. 91 million), the policy has been (Bloomberg Quint, July 18) on ‘To-do’ list for the
greeted with a volley of protests. The main grievance Indian economy
is that the policy was formulated without state repre-
sentatives being taken into confidence. West Bengal’s “The one country big enough to emerge as an
education minister Partha Chatterjee describes it as a independent pole and provide common sense
“copy paste of a western model”. Addressing the media and calm leadership in a geopolitically turbu-
on July 31, he said: “Education is on the concurrent list,
but the content of the new policy was not discussed with lent world, is India.”
state governments before it was passed by the Union Kishore Madhubani, distinguished fellow, National
Cabinet.” University of Singapore, in an essay ‘India’s tryst with
In the same vein, chief minister and Trinamool Con- the Asian Century’ (India Today, July 27)
gress supremo Mamata Banerjee, now in her second
term and in campaign mode for the legislative assembly “The goal of 6 percent of GDP to be spent on
election scheduled for next summer, awarded NEP a education was first articulated in 1948! Every
mere 10-12 percent score. government articulates this target and then
Reacting, Dilip Ghosh, comes up against its own finance ministry. In
president of BJP, the main the last six years, Modi government expendi-
opposition party in the state ture on education has declined in real terms.
says: “It is an irony that the How will it reach 6 percent?”
state government, which Shashi Tharoor, Congress leader and MP, on the
has no education policy, implementation challenges of National Education
is opposing the education Policy 2020 (twitter.com, July 30)
policy of the Central govern-
ment. The education system “Nation was waiting for the new educa-
in Bengal is completely tion policy for 34 years. It is here now. It is a
broken.”
Although NEP 2020 has Dilip Ghosh forward-looking document that accepts the
been widely acclaimed coun- flaws of today’s education system. But, it has
trywide as revolutionary and path-breaking, several two issues with it — it is unable to break free of
academics in the state are of the opinion that NEP 2020 pressures of education’s old traditions. Sec-
excessively centralises higher education. “Segregation of ondly, the policy does not say how the reforms
universities into teaching and research institutions goes it speaks of, will be achieved. The policy is
against the very idea of a university, in which research either silent or confused about these issues.”
and teaching have to be coterminous,” says Sankhay- Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister of Delhi state on
an Choudhury, general secretary of Calcutta Univer- the National Education Policy 2020 (July 30)

24 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2020