Critical to have states' confidence to advance NEP vision, says Parl panel

It is critical to have complete confidence of states to successfully advance the vision of the new National Education Policy (NEP) and the Ministry of Education should develop mechanism to coordinate with them on any concerns flagged, a Parliamentary panel has noted.

The Department-related Parliamentary Women, Standing Committee on Education, Sabha Children, Youth and Sports, headed by Congress MP Digvijay Singh, also noted the absence of an organised institutional mechanism to gather feedback on the NEP's implementation.

It recommended that a centralised nationwide tracker at the university-level should be developed to track progress on NEP implementation in higher education.

"The Committee has observed that a synergised collaboration between stakeholders is required for the successful implementation of the NEP.

 

"In response, the Ministry has rightly noted that Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution. It is therefore critical to have the complete confidence of the states to successfully advance the vision of the NEP," the panel said in its report.

"However, the Ministry's answer has not touched on the modalities as to how the Union Government is working with state governments that have expressed reservations about various elements of the NEP in Higher Education.

"Hence, the Committee is of the opinion that the Ministry must develop a mechanism to coordinate with states on any such concerns that they may have shared," it added.

The panel flagged the absence of an organised institutional mechanism to gather feedback on the NEP's implementation.

"...it has been left entirely to universities and no clear channel appears to be identified for universities to share this feedback. This is uncalled for given the importance of the NEP in shaping the future of the country.

"The committee reiterates, in the strongest possible terms, the need for a formal feedback mechanism from all stakeholders to provide input and suggest policy improvements," the report said.