Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the main purpose of the National Education Policy is to pull it out of narrow thinking and to integrate it with modern thoughts of the 21st century.
Addressing Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam, the PM said, “The main purpose of the national education policy is to pull out the education out of narrow thinking and to integrate it with the modern thoughts of the 21st century. There has never been a dearth of talent in our country, but unfortunately we were given such a system where education means job.”
He said, “We should not prepare degree holder youths only, but our education system should give the country whatever human resources are needed to take it forward. Our teachers and the educational institutions have to lead this resolution.”
Modi said slight changes were made in the education policy after independence, but a huge change remained. “The system created by the Britishers was never and cannot be a part of the basic nature of India. For building a new India, creation of new systems and the inclusion of modern systems is equally important. Things which never happened before and which the country had never imagined before are becoming a reality in today’s India,” he said.
He said in sectors like space technology where earlier everything was done only by the government, now a new world is being created for the youths through private players. “Today the daughters are presenting examples in the sector which were earlier closed for the daughters and women of the country,” he said.
The PM said the country not only recovered rapidly from a major pandemic like corona, but today India is one of the fastest growing big economies in the world. “Today we are the third biggest start-up eco-system in the world,” he said.
He said in the new policy the complete focus is on making the children skilled according to their talent and choice. “Education Policy is preparing a ground so that our youths are skilled, confident, practical and calculative. For the new National Education Policy work has been done on a big infrastructure overhaul in the education sector in the country. Today a large number of new colleges are opening, new universities are coming up and new IIT and IIM are being set up,” he said.
Modi said that the National Education Policy will complete two years on July 29. This education policy has been framed after much brainstorming. “It is a big achievement in itself that the National Education Policy is being welcomed in the country which is full of diversities. In these two years the country has taken several concrete steps in the direction of implementing the National Education Policy. During this workshops held on topics like quality and future readiness have helped a lot,” he said.
He said the National Education Policy is now opening the way for studies in mother tongue. “In this series ancient Indian languages like Sanskrit are being promoted. It is our effort that no Indian is deprived of the best information, best knowledge and best opportunity just because of the language. There in the National Education Policy we have encouraged studies in Indian languages.” he said.
The PM said that Kashi is called the city of salvation because in our culture education has always been considered the path of salvation. “Therefore when brainstorming on education and research, learning and understanding, is being held in Kashi which is the main center of all learning, then the nectar emanating from it will surely give a new direction to the country,” he said.