Centre’s new education policy gets thumbs up from experts

BHUBANESWAR: Academicians and educationists welcomed the National Education Policy (NEP) unveiled by the Centre on Wednesday.
Utkal University vice-chancellor S M Patnaik said the new education policy is going to bring a paradigm shift in higher education. “There is a greater emphasis on liberal arts and philosophy in the policy. These are important aspects of learning. A student of engineering can take up a paper in philosophy and get credits for this. Less attractive social science subjects will become more attractive now. The NEP gives more emphasis on flexibility and student friendly education,” Patnaik said.
Sambalpur University vice-chancellor Deepak Kumar Behera said the flexibility in NEP is to be admired and appreciated. “A proper coordination between the Centre and state is highly essential for smooth execution of the NEP. All stakeholders (students, teachers, research scholars, academic administrators, employees and parents) should be given orientation on the NEP through different platforms,” Behera said.
“Adequate infrastructure and extra fund are required to implement the NEP to the fullest. The policy looks quite promising and ambitious. However, the success depends on its effective and time bound implementation,” he added.
Asoka Kumar Das, vice-chairman of Odisha State Higher Education Council, said this is a wish-list policy for everybody. “However, there is no clear definition of its operational viability at the grass roots level. State universities and institutions in the aspirational areas are the real grass roots. States must have a dominant voice in the relevant policy decisions to be implemented by higher education council of India. There should be a mechanism to allow states to play a dominant role in the council,” he felt.