New Delhi, Jan 29 (UNI) President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday said that the new Education Policy gives new options to students and for the first time, the students have been given the freedom to opt for the subjects of their choice and also an option of change, if needed.

Addressing the joint session of Parliament ahead of the Union Budget, he said, 'Keeping in mind the global requirements and challenges of the 21st century, the Government has announced the National Education Policy. For the first time students have been given the freedom to opt for the subjects of their choice under the National Education Policy. Students have also been provided the option of changing their subjects or streams in the middle of a course.'

He also said that more than 3 crore 20 lakh students are getting the benefit of various scholarship schemes of the government. These include students belonging to scheduled castes, backward classes, forest dwellers and tribal classes and minority communities.



Mr Kovind further said, 'Along with improvements in education, the emphasis of my Government has been also on simplifying and streamlining the recruitment process for jobs.' The youth have benefited greatly from discontinuation of interviews for recruitment to Group C and Group D posts. By setting up the National Recruitment Agency, the Government has freed the youth from the inconvenience of appearing for multiple examinations, he added.



Referring to the various initiatives taken by the Government under the Pradhan Mantri e-Vidya, He further said 'My Government has developed the Diksha online portal as One Nation, One Digital Platform for school education. Ever sensitive towards safeguarding the interests of the students, my Government has also successfully conducted the JEE and NEET examinations in order to prevent the loss of an academic year.'



Believing that that the journey of the most deprived sections towards social and economic development begins with access to quality education, the President said, 'More than 3 crore 20 lakh such students are benefitting from various scholarship schemes of the Government. These include students belonging to the Scheduled Castes, backward classes, forest-dwellers and tribal community and minority communities. It is the endeavour of the Government to ensure that maximum numbers of eligible and needy students have been able to avail the benefit of the scholarships.'

Along with this, Mr Kovind further said that the Central Government's share in the funding of post matric scholarship scheme for Scheduled Caste students was also being enhanced. Similarly, the network of Ekalavya Model Residential Schools has been expanded to cover every tribal dominated block to facilitate the education of tribal students and so far, more than 550 such schools have been sanctioned, he added.





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