Patkai Christian College organises webinar on NEP

Dimapur, Nov. 9 (EMN): The Education department of Patkai Christian College (Autonomous) conducted a webinar on National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to help its teaching faculty understand the shift and changes the new education policy will bring ‘and how the college can best implement it in an effective manner’.

A press release received here stated that resource persons for the webinar were Prof. Harjeet Kaur Bhatia of Jamia Milla Islamia and Prof. Buno Leigise of Nagaland University, who explained in detail what NEP 2020 would entail for academics.

Bhatia spoke at length on the aims and objective of the new education policy and said it would facilitate an inclusive, participatory and holistic approach which takes into consideration field experiences, empirical research, stakeholder feedback as well as lessons learned from best practices.

She insisted that the changes to the education system have been introduced after thorough research and the NEP 2020 gives thrust to curriculum and pedagogy reform across all stages ‘so as to move the education system towards real understanding and away from the culture of rote learning’.

She said that the NEP would focus on experiential learning, including hands-on learning, arts-integrated and sports-integrated education, and story-telling-based pedagogy, among others, as standard pedagogy.

Leigise however sought to highlight concerns and grievances related to the NEP.

The new policy, she said, is aimed at making higher education centres multi-disciplinary but making it flexible for students to change disciplines could have its challenges.

“It’s one thing to say it allows flexibility/interdisciplinary but quite another thing to implement,” she maintained.

Leigise also expressed concern over the new policy, which stipulates no high stake examination but only continuous evaluation.

NEP proposes three types of institutes of higher learning – research, teaching and autonomous – and that there would be no more affiliation systems, she said. The idea of Higher Education Institution (HEI) clusters also requires more clarity, she added.