A draft Bill for ushering in a new education policy with stress on providing quality education coupled with accessibility, equity, affordability and accountability, was ready and it would be placed before Parliament very soon, according to Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Human Resource Development.
Speaking on the second day of the centenary celebrations of the Veerashaiva Vidyavardhak Sangha, which runs a chain of educational institutions in the district, here on Saturday, Mr. Javadekar said that the new policy was thought of to ensure that education imparted will have a quality outcome besides empowering students, their families and the country.
“As a prelude to tabling the new education policy, we have planned to carry out an assessment survey at the national level mid-November this year to find out the outcome of the education imparted so far. Based on the study, corrective steps would be initiated to make education more qualitative. Without quality, education, imparted in the present form, would only remain as infrastructure but will not able to develop human resource,” he said and added that there were plans to impart training to teachers for better outcome of education.
“More than gaining knowledge, followed by skill development, education helps one to be a good human being,” he pointed out. Mr. Javadekar was all praise for the sangha for giving top priority to education about a century ago, when the British were not too keen on educating all people, with the forethought that it (education) would empower the people and bring in the desired change. “Anybody donating for education, lives forever,” he said and complimented the donor late S.K. Modi for his gesture to establish an institution right from kindergarten to pre-university through the sangha, and also other donors.
Union Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Anant Kumar said that the Union government would extend all the required support to the sangha if it came forward to establish a Central Institute for Plastic Engineering Technology on its campus to find a solution to the plastic menace and protecting the environment.
B. Sriramulu and Karadi Sanganna, both MPs, Jagadish Shettar, former Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai, former Minister, Amarnath Patil, Allum Veerbhadrappa, both MLCs, N. Thippanna, former MLC and vice-president of Akhil Bharat Veerashaiva Mahasabha, were present.
