National Edu Policy panel in around 10 days: Javadekar

The government is set to announce a committee headed by an eminent educationist in the next 10 days which would to draft the National Education Policy (NEP), HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said today.
The ministry has already held comprehensive discussions with all the stakeholders including the states, educational institutes, parliamentarians and experts, he said, adding even the recommendations of TSR Subramanian committee will be considered as an "input".
"We will have a committee headed by an eminent educationist in the next ten days... We are discussing some names but we also have to ask them whether they are ready because they will also have to work for three to four months," the HRD minister told PTI in an interview.

Asked about Subramanian's criticism that the government was not making his committee's draft policy public, Javadekar said he was only working on evolution of a national education policy.
They will be essentially academics but there can be people from other streams also, he added.
He said that suggestions have been received from all stakeholders and are being scrutinised.

"Seeing those and seeing the relevance of the time, they will come up with a policy statement and they will also come out with many annexures," the minister said.
Asked about why formulation of NEP was taking so much time, Javadekar said, "You are thinking of a generation, when you are revising the National Education Policy after 30 years", adding the whole exercise should be completed in the next six months after which it will be placed before the Cabinet for approval.

Noting that the education policy was framed in 1986 and modified in 1992, he said since then several changes have taken place that call for a revision.
The government would like to bring out a policy which will meet the changing dynamics of the requirements with regard to quality education, innovation and research, aiming to make India a knowledge superpower by equipping its students with the necessary skills and knowledge, and to eliminate the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry, he said.
The T S R Subramanian committee, set up by former HRD minister Smriti Irani, was entrusted with preparing a new draft education policy.

It submitted the report to the government in May suggesting measures to strengthen the sector that caters to over 300 million students. However, government decided to have more consultations and use it as an "input" for the future draft and not as a final draft report.