July 29 is just a day away and the Prime Minister is all set to address the nation as the National Education Policy turns one. A few days prior to that, the new Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan said that the ministry has laid down a plan to implement the policy successfully.

"The Department of Higher Education has finalised a theme-wise implementation plan for NEP 2020 for higher education with various action points to overcome the challenges faced by the system and thereby deliver high-quality higher education, with equity and inclusion," said the minister in parliament. He was answering a question posed by MPs Sangeeta Kumari Singh, Sukanta Majumdar, Rajveer Singh, Bhola Singh, Raja Naik, Dr Jayanta Kumar Roy and Vinod Kumar Sonkar.

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Pradhan said that the ministry is establishing at least one Higher Education Institution as a  large multidisciplinary HEI in or near every district and is formulating a stage-wise mechanism for granting graded autonomy to colleges. 

When asked about the challenges faced in the higher education sector, Pradhan said that the NEP has identified a few. This includes a "severely fragmented higher educational ecosystem, less emphasis on the development of cognitive skills and learning outcomes. separation of disciplines, Limited teacher and institutional autonomy; Lesser emphasis on research at most universities and colleges, and lack of competitive peer-reviewed research funding across disciplines, An ineffective regulatory system; and large affiliating universities resulting in low standards of undergraduate education."