Govt may announce new education policy by December, says Dr Satya Pal Singh

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 23: The new education policy is at its final stage and would be announced in December this year, said Union Minister of State for HRD Dr Satya Pal Singh here on Monday.

Singh was speaking after inaugurating the “National Academic Meet” here organised by Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram, an RSS-sponsored think tank based in Kerala.

It may be mentioned that the RSS has been pressing for new education policy repeatedly. RSS Sarsanghchalak Dr Mohan Bhagwat has in his 2017 Vijayadashami address repeated his demand and sought to know how much time it would take to be made public.

Dr. Singh said the policy envisages to ‘correcting’ the course of education system in the country, that has followed a colonial mind set. He pointed out that unfortunately after independence, most of the academicians followed the footsteps of British and Western scholars deliberately denigrating Indian culture.

Stating that the biggest challenge being faced by the education system and the government is ‘how to de-colonise the Indian mind’ and the government is working on the policy in this regard. The Minister said it will be the first education policy that was discussed layer by layer and threadbare.

Dr. Singh further said that improving the quality of education from the primary level, making higher education affordable to people and accessing higher education to more are some of the major issues faced by the education system. He said skill development is one of the major areas the government has given thrust upon.

Dr Satya Pal Singh lighting the lamp to inaugurate the National Academic Meet

To prevent the exodus of students to foreign countries seeking higher education, Dr Singh said the higher education institutions should be developed to the standard of Centres of International Excellence. He said accessibility to higher education in the country is only 25.6 per cent while in USA 86 per cent, Germany 80, and in China 60 per cent.

The Minister pointed out that the aim of the government is to improve the higher education system in the country to make available to more students. Stating that higher education is very expensive, Dr Singh said it has to be made more affordable to all sections in the society.

Indicating that changes are necessary in the Right to Education Act, Dr Singh said the Act lacks teeth. The Act provides right to compulsory primary education. But what is the remedy if parents do not send their children to school? So many things have to be done in improving the primary education in the country, he added.

The meet was organised by Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram as part of the “Navathi Celebration of P Parameswaran, Director of Vichara Kendram.