Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the National Education Policy (NEP) aims to address the issues of the mark sheet driven education in the country.
Speaking on the occasion of the “School Education Conclave” organised by the Ministry of Education, Modi said that one of the main objectives of NEP is to remove the stress caused among the students due to the anxiety of getting good marks.
Referring to the mark sheet as an ‘a mental pressure sheet,’ Modi said that students should not be evaluated by just one examination, but based on various aspects of student development like self-assessment, peer-to-peer assessment.
The Prime Minister said that instead of a mark sheet, the NEP has proposed for a holistic report card which will be a detailed sheet of unique potential, aptitude, attitude, talent, skills, efficiency, competency and possibilities of the students.
He also said that a new national assessment centre “Parakh” will also be established for the overall improvement of the evaluation system.
Modi said that the NEP has been formulated in such a way that syllabus can be reduced and focused on fundamental things.
He emphasized that focus on basic education is the most important aspect of this policy.
“Under the NEP, the development of foundational literacy and numeracy will be taken as a national mission. The child should go ahead and read to learn, for that it is necessary that in the beginning, he should learn to read. This development journey from learning to read to learn will be completed through foundational literacy and numeracy,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister said that the students should be made to learn about the ‘21st-century skills’ which includes critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, curiosity and communication.
“Our earlier education policy was restrictive. But in the real world, all subjects are related to each other. But the present system does not provide an opportunity to change the field, to connect with new possibilities. This has also been a major reason for the dropout of many children. Therefore, the National Education Policy students are given the freedom to choose any subject,” he added.
He said that students will study under a new curriculum drawn from the NEPwhen the country celebrates its 75th year of Independence in 2022