Stressing on the need to focus on how to implement the National Education Policy – 2020 (NEP 2020), Prof. M.K. Sridhar, a member of the University Grants Commission (UGC), said that the need of the hour is to develop models for implementation of specific aspects of the policy rather than repeatedly discussing what is there in the policy.
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“Much is talked about what is there in NEP 2020. The question, however, is how we implement it. We need not discuss what has to happen in the country or State or in other universities. We need to focus on what has to happen in our institution as per the policy. It means that we, as an institution, need to devise models of implementation of specific aspects of NEP 2020, which could be adopted by other institutions. General talk on implementation without the development of specific models wouldn’t be of much use,” said Mr. Sridhar, who was a member of the NEP 2020 drafting committee.
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He was delivering the keynote address at the inaugural session of a two-day workshop on implementation of NEP 2020 at Central University of Karnataka (CUK) near Kalaburagi on October 5. The event was organised by Centre for Educational and Social Studies, Bengaluru and CUK.
Admitting to the impossibility of complete implementation of NEP 2020 considering the comprehensiveness of the provisions, Mr. Sridhar suggested that every institution can focus on a few specific provisions and develop its own models for implementation.
“If CUK focuses on the provision of multidisciplinary education and develops a model of implementation, its model could be adopted by other institutions in the country. There could be a model on the process for changing the mindset of management and reorient them. There could also be a model on how to overcome the challenges that stakeholders tend to face in the process of implementation... models would not necessarily be only on how to implement a specific aspect of the policy, but also on how not to implement it,” Mr. Sridhar said.
Pointing to the proximity of Central universities to the Union Government, Mr. Sridhar said that Central institutions had the advantage of being able to directly reach out to the policymakers and see that the changes they wanted in the education system were brought in.
“Moreover, Central universities are better off in terms of human resources and funds. These factors have placed them in a better place to take the lead in implementation of NEP 2020 and serve as role models for other institutions,” he said.
CUK Vice-Chancellor Battu Satyanarayana, Registrar Basavaraj Donur, scholars Shivaprasad, Gowrish, M.V. Alagawadi were among the participants in the video conference.