Will take steps to revise education policy: Smriti Irani

She added she wants to include methods to bring greater uniformity in education

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani said here on Friday that she would take steps to revise the National Education Policy (NEP) and include methods to bring greater uniformity in education, considering the challenges faced by the current generation.

"I am trying to bring uniformity in education in the new revised NEP, but we will also keep in mind the views of all cities, states, regions and other countries. Not only bookish, but practical knowledge is required so that the students can use it in their practical life," said Irani while addressing school students.

"The students will also get a chance to contribute to the new revised NEP," she added.

Talking about the importance of Hindi and other regional languages in the country, Irani said, "I will review the work done till now, and done earlier by the councils and committees to promote any language so that National Council for Promotion of Indian Languages can be promoted equally. I will work cohesively and review the linguistic minorities in our country by the end of this year."

She said she is working upon how to make competitive exams student friendly.

About the efficiency of teachers, she said, "Soon, we will launch a national mission that can work on teachers training not only with respect to capacity building, but also in the context of bringing newness in school administrators,"

She used the occasion to share information about some of the new schemes which the government is planning to introduce in the education sector.

"The government is planning to launch a National E Library which will contain all research, documentaries, books, curriculums, etc and people from abroad have also shown interest. The students will be able to access it at home and not only students it will be available for everyone," said Irani.

"The government has also planned to start a National Academic Depositary soon so that all degrees in the world can be digitized. It will be a free service for students so that they can digitize their degree at any time and whenever they want to get their bio data verified then they can do it by the trusted entities. And the degree which will go with them can be checked with bio data," she added.

Focusing upon the need to divert students' attention towards subjects like Mathematics and science, she said, "The government has planned to start a National Invention Scheme next year with which we can grow the students' interest towards maths and science at the primary, secondary and higher education level, so that we can increase research ranks, and also, how can they get their research published, and how can they be patented, and this movement should be in every district and zila so that with the medium of community initiative, maths and science can become a very popular subjects among students."

Irani also said that the need to join skill development with the curriculum is a matter of concern for her so that the students can be made more employable.

"We are working upon education for all and affordable education for all, whether with the help of scholarships or special initiative, and we will fulfill this dream very soon. We are working on how to join skill with curriculum. A new program to meet the ministers will be introduced under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)," said Irani.

She ended by sharing her thoughts on the issue of female infanticide and how she was saved from becoming a victim to it.

"Female infanticide is a matter of concern for us. When I was born, someone hinted to my mother that a daughter is a burden and she should kill me. But my mother was brave, I want to thank her," said Irani.