NEP envisions increased employability, says Union Education Minister Pradhan

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan emphasised that the National Education Policy (NEP) has increased the youth's employability. How so? He said that it was due to the required training for students proposed by the policy and also due to the importance given to Indian languages.

"NEP has envisioned the increase in employability of nation's youth by training students in schools and giving importance to Indian languages. The benefits of this scheme will be seen in a few years and then it will become successful," he said, as per a report by ANI.

He was speaking at a meeting held on August 9, by the Ministry of Education, with senior officials, counterparts from other ministries and organisations like the NCERT, Election Commission, ICAR and DRDO. This was a consultation for the development of the new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) based on the NEP.

The meeting was chaired by Anita Karwal, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), and focused on how ministries and organisations can contribute to developing a curriculum framework that is responsive and relevant to the developmental needs and interests of learners at different stages of development, as per ANI.

"Many areas of contribution were discussed, such as, the rapidly changing technology, need for innovation and generation of new ideas, need to focus on crucial areas like climate change, future skill requirements, crucial factors for agricultural growth, knowledge of India, especially in those areas where India is at the forefront for instilling a sense of pride, assistive technology for inclusion, enriching subject knowledge with real-life information, how to promote multilingualism, integration of sports, fitness, arts, etc," stated Pradhan.

Ideas such as leveraging the innovation ecosystem of the Department of Science and Technology, understanding the efforts that go into agriculture to bring food to the table, the huge role of Gram Panchayats in ensuring enrolment and retention in schools, the importance of imbibing volunteerism in early years, the need for every child to participate in activities related to physical health and well-being, focus on Divyang children, exposure to new technology from a young age, etc were discussed, as per ANI.

All in all, the meeting discussed how it would help if all the concerned ministries could join themselves with the school education ecosystem.