Urban Mirror Correspondent
New Delhi, February 13: The Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) today criticised the NDA government for failing to introduce New Education Policy (NEP) even after lapse of five years. The LGP said that the BJP in its manifesto had promised a new education policy but after constitution two committees and 115000 consultations there is no possibility of the new policy by the NDA government before the general elections are announced as this doesnot appear to be priority area of the BJP.
The spokesman of the party said here on Wednesday that the NEP had assumed significance as it was to come up after a gap of nearly 30 years to meet the changing dynamics of the people’s requirements. However the NDA government appears to have failed on this front. The Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar repeatedly announced the launch of the NEP but the wait appears to be quite long, the spokesman said and added throw in the dismal quality of education, and what emerges is a burning need for a new education policy with a clear direction on quality, innovation, outcome and industry linkage. The spokesman said procrastination has held up a policy that has already been discussed for five years and drafted by two committees following wide consultation from village panchayat upwards. With only months to go for general elections, there is hardly any time left for the policy to get parliamentary approval. The spokesman thus said the NEP will likely not see the light of day during the present government. The spokesman said that a broader education policy is a need for systemic reform of the sector – in academics, in regulations and in financing but the delay is a sad commentary on the importance that education has got under the NDA regime. The spokesman said the promise of NEP has been belied as the goal posts for announcement of the policy have been shifted from time to time and huge resources invested in nation-wide consultations by the high-powered committees headed by T.R.S. Subramanium and K. Kasturirangan have been wasted. The spokesman said school education needs a huge improvement if India is to reap the benefit of its young demography, helping feed industry with a productive and efficient workforce. Last year, the World Bank said Indians born today are likely to be just 44% productive as workers, way below their Asian peers.
