10-year time frame available to implement NEP: Kasturirangan

The new National Education Policy had taken into consideration all aspects and concerns of educators and students, said K. Kasturirangan, the chairman of the policy’s drafting committee.

In a webinar hosted jointly by The Hindu and Sai University on Wednesday Mr. Kasturirangan ran the audience through the salient features of the policy and addressed their concerns on its implementation.

“We are aware of the geographical and economic imbalances. We have a 10-year time frame (to implement) and another 10 years to evaluate it,” he said. In a wide-ranging discussion, Mr. Kasturirangan said experiences from across the country had been studied, which led the committee to come up with a mechanism to develop every student’s capabilities, be it in learning languages, communicating or developing technical expertise.

Unique abilities

The policy had been drafted with the aim of exploiting the unique capability of a human being, he said.

K.V. Ramani, founder of Sai University, said the institution in its founding year had already implemented the NEP. The university would provide students an opportunity to pick up subjects of their interest in the true spirit of interdisciplinary education, he said.

Jamshed Bharucha, founding Vice-Chancellor of the University, said he had been excited to return to India after 40 years after reading the NEP. He said he welcomed the academic bank of credit system. “I support the spirit of the proposal because of the obvious flexibility but I have one concern. I hope that it does not force all institutions to follow the same curriculum,” he said.