‘State wants new education policy balanced with ground realities’

Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, JULY 9

The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, will soon come out with a new national policy on education. The initiative comes after a long period of 23 years since the last revision of education policy in 1922. The National Policy on Education was framed in 1968. It was revised and modified in 1986 and later updated in 1992.
The new education policy aims to meet the changing dynamics of the population’s requirement with regard to access, equity and quality. It also aims to promote innovations and research, in the effort to make India a knowledge of superpower by equipping the students with necessary skills and knowledge, and further to eliminate the shortage of manpower in science, technology industry and the society at large.
To develop the policy documents, the HRD ministry has identified 33 themes for the purpose of discussions and out of these 13 themes has been identified for School Education. The ministry has also directed the National Council of
Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to undertake consultative meetings with the concerned stakeholders across the country at the State, regional and national levels.
Towards this initiative, a one-day State level consultative meeting was held today at New Capital Convention Centre, Kohima. The programme was organized by the North East Regional Institute of Education (NERIE), NCERT, Umiam, Barapani, Meghalaya, in collaboration with the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Nagaland.Addressing the consultative meeting, Minister for Education and SCERT, Yitachu laid emphasis on the importance of understanding the ground realities of each State while framing the new national education policy.
Speaking to a host of officials from Education department from both the centre and the State, he pointed the impracticality of the entire country to have a single formula on education policy, and therefore suggested that change of policy should meet and understand the ground realities of the respective regions across the country.
The minister shared his concern that the country as a whole and the State in particular will miss the target if the ground realities are not taken into account.
“Rules and guidelines will miss its purpose if we fail to understand the ground realities of each respective State,” he said maintaining that the new education policy should be practicable and can be easily implemented.
Referring to Nagaland’s literacy rate of 80.11%, Yitachu said “there is nothing to be proud of with the literacy rate since the ground reality in the State is far, far behind.
He brought to light that there are many children in the interiors of Nagaland who haven’t attended school in their lifetime. He went on to say that “Our high literacy rate does not take us anywhere, nor does it enable our citizens to seek jobs.” He, however, expressed hope that the new national education policy will address the current issues faced by the State and the country at large.
Yitachu also urged the stakeholders in the state, particular the educationists, to come up with the right education policy inorder to transform the educational system of the country and the State.
SCERT Director Vipralhou Kesiezie said that the new education policy will be an exercise which will be ‘very crucial and important’ for the whole country and Nagaland in particular.
He lamented that the NE region as a whole in the past was completely left out from these kind of exercises. “Hence, we hardly find anything relating to the NE region in the national policy on education.”
Kesiezie felt that “it was because of these reasons that the other regions of the country have a very poor knowledge about NE region and that the region have been looked down with an indifferent attitude.”
“The NE region has been unfairly deprived of our due share of development and benefits, hence we are compelled to go outside our region to receive higher education,” he said maintaining that the tribal ways of lives and the cultural heritage which is predominant in the NE region are in no way inferior to any other cultures, hence the same should be reflected in the national education policy.
“India as a sovereign and secular country should give equal treatment to all groups of people and communities irrespective of size, regions, locations, etc,” he added.
Stating the urgency to address on some pressing issues, Kesiezie also shared his concern on the rise of unemployment in the State. He pointed out that the increasing number of literate people is not helping the increase of working manpower force, rather leading to its decrease.
“We are producing hundreds and thousands of graduates every year, but most of whom remain unemployed. Students are getting degrees but without the knowledge of application abilities and skills, he said and strongly pressed for an effective education system.
Representative from NCERT, New Delhi, Prof. Dr. Sarvari Banerjee elaborated on the 13 themes which have been set aside for School Education. She informed that the 13 themes would be deliberated at various levels across the country.