Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday, October 8, said the new National Education Policy (NEP) is the need of the hour to enable Indian students to compete in the 21st century, while asserting that the views of the RSS on the NEP are nationalistic. Karnataka is the first state to implement the NEP.
Bommai also said that the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) should continue as it is an extension of the Common Entrance Test (CET) that Karnataka and many other states have been holding for those seeking admission to different colleges. He said that Tamil Nadu does not have any experience with CET and therefore, does not have the right to oppose NEET. States with no competitive exams have a lot of seats in the management quota for students from the privileged class, he added.
"We are in the 21st century and we don't need Macaulay's education system. Macaulay's is a 200-year-old education system and Europe is seeking change. To suit the 21st-century needs, we need a change," Bommai said at a conclave recently.
The NEP not only aims to "rewrite wrong things" but also looks towards the future, he said, adding that with the emergence of science, technology and artificial intelligence, there is a need to prepare rural children to compete in the international community. "We cannot be spectators when our children are not given the right kind of education and not prepared very well to face the world. We are giving the best education for the next generation (through NEP)," the Karnataka chief minister said.
He also said that there is nothing wrong with what the RSS has said about the NEP. "RSS thoughts are national thoughts. What is wrong with it?" he asked. On opposition parties criticising the NEP, the BJP leader said that the Congress is a part of political history and that is why it thinks of history as it suits it. "They have written history and it is about the Nehru and Gandhi family. They have written history about Congressmen. In the Indian independence struggle, peasants, workers and a lot of people laid down their lives. They are anonymous soldiers. They want to live with false history," he said.
When asked if his father and former Union HRD Minister SR Bommai would have been comfortable with the new NEP, he said, "Times have changed. There was no digital world when my father was there. It's a global village now." Bommai further said, "He was part of Macaulay's education system and I don't want my grandson to be a part of it. He should be in tune with the most flexible, modern and well-equipped deserving depository of knowledge."
"NEET is nothing new for us, it's just an extension of the CET. We have not only allowed people from Karnataka, but from other states like Bihar to write the CET. NEET should continue," he asserted. NEET is one competitive exam instead of many exams held across states on different dates, causing inconvenience to students, Bommai added.
