NEP 2020 will help regain India's glory as great centre of learning: President Kovind

President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday said that the effective implementation of the National Education Policy 2020 would help India to regain its glory as a great centre of learning.

"Effective implementation of the NEP is likely to restore India's glory as a great centre of learning. Besides imparting knowledge and hard skills, a holistic approach inculcates values and soft skills One of the targets of NEP 2020 is to increase Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education to 50% by 2035. Technology can help in achieving this target," he said while addressing the Visitor's Conference on 'Implementation of National Education Policy 2020: Higher Education'.

"India was a globally respected education hub in ancient times. Universities at Takshashila and Nalanda had iconic status. But today, India's higher education institutions don't get high positions in global rankings," President Kovind added.

The President highlighted the importance of 'jigyasa' or curiosity in 'our tradition' further urging teachers to not have one-way lectures with their students.

"In our tradition, Jigyasa or curiosity for learning was encouraged. It was given greater importance than Jigeesha or the wish to win a debate or argument. Our teachers need to avoid one-way lectures and need to encourage students into free discussions with them," he said while urging teachers to encourage discussions during lectures.

The President also called for higher education institutes for being centres of innovation and provide "innovative solutions to national and local problems".

"Community participation and use of local resources should be encouraged for local problems. Higher education missions must utilise national missions as opportunities to promote solution-oriented learning," he said further.

The NEP 2020 document mentions nearly 20 great scientists, saint-scholars and thinkers from ancient India. The President requested teachers to develop study material on them and other such great ancient scholars so that their work should be rewritten in modern terminology.

The President said that the National Education Policy (NEP) aims to reorient the educational system towards meeting the needs of the 21st century by setting "the vision of developing an equitable and vibrant knowledge society and providing quality education to all. It achieves the twin objectives of inclusion and excellence."

He further said that the NEP would discourage the habit of rote learning among the students and overemphasis on marks or grades that causes stress among students.

"The Centre's role must not be limited to setting norms by the agencies like the University Grants Commission or the proposed Higher Education Commission of India. There should be a clear focus on quality--higher education institutes under the Centre must set quality benchmarks," he said further.

( With inputs from ANI )