New Delhi: Soon after taking oath for the second consecutive prime ministerial term, Narendra Modi sought to establish that his government’s focus would be on revamping the education sector in the country.
The draft National Education Policy was submitted to the Union human development ministry, by a committee headed by former Isro chief K. Kasturirangan, within a week of the NDA government being sworn in.
The HRD ministry, headed by Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, has been mandated to finalise the NEP, has been intensely holding consultations with various stakeholders on the issue. The NEP was last reviewed by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1986.
The Narendra Modi government is keen that the NEP is finalised as it wants to leave an indelible mark on the country's education sector, sources stated. Revamping of education sector was one of the major promises made by the Bharatiya Janata Party in its manifesto ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Sources stated that the consultations are now in the final stages and the finalisation of the NEP is expected to be the next big ticket announcement, after abrogation of Article 370, triple talaq law and passing of the anti-terror UAPA, to be made by the Narendra Modi government.
As part of the consultations, various stakeholders, including affiliates from the Sangh Parivar have been holding sessions of discussion with ministers and top officials in the government. The importance that the Sangh attaches to the process can be gauged from the fact that a few of these consultations have also been attended by RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat himself.
The BJP has always maintained that introducing a NEP was one of its priority areas ever since the Narendra Modi government was first elected to office in 2014. However, almost four years of the first tenure had been lost due to the exhaustive consultations that had taken place to finalise a draft NEP.
