New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday addressed the Conclave on “School Education in 21st Century” under the NEP 2020 today through video conference.
Speaking on the occasion Prime Minister said that National Education Policy is going to give a new direction to 21st century India and we are becoming part of a moment that is laying the foundation for building the future of our country. He said that hardly any aspect of our life remained the same in these three decades yet our education system is still running under the old system.
The new National Education Policy is a means to fulfilling new aspirations, new opportunities of a new India, he said.
The Prime Minister said that the NEP 2020 is a result of hardwork of people from every region, every sector and every language in the last 3 to 4 years. He said the actual work begins now, in implementation of the policy.
He urged the teachers to work together for an effective implementation of the National Education Policy.
The Prime Minister said that it is in preschool where children begin to understand their senses, their skills better. For this, there is a need for schools and teachers to provide an environment of fun learning, playful learning, activity based learning and discovery based learning to children. He said that as the child progresses, it is very necessary to develop a greater learning spirit, scientific and logical thinking, mathematical thinking and scientific temperament.
In the National Education Policy, The Prime Minister stressed the importance of replacing the old 10 Plus 2 with the system of 5 Plus 3 Plus 3 Plus 4. He said now playful education of the pre-school which is limited to private schools in cities will also reach villages once this policy is implemented.
He emphasized that focus on basic education is the most important aspect of this policy. Under the National Education Policy, the development of foundational literacy and numeracy will be taken as a national mission. The child should go ahead and read to learn, for that it is necessary that in the beginning he should learn to read. This development journey from learn to read to read to learn will be completed through foundational literacy and numeracy.
He stressed on the importance of advancing our students with 21st century skills. He listed out the 21st century skills – Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Curiosity and Communication. He said that students should learn coding from the beginning, understand Artificial Intelligence, join Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Data Science and Robotics. He said that our earlier education policy was restrictive. But in the real world, all subjects are related to each other. But the present system does not provide an opportunity to change the field, to connect with new possibilities. This has also been a major reason for the dropout of many children. Therefore, the National Education Policy students are given freedom to choose any subject.
PM Modi called upon the cooperation of all the teachers, administrators, voluntary organizations and parents in this national mission.
