Consultation Seminar Held in Gujarat on New Education Policy

For understanding the pattern of the new education policy that is presently being drafted by the Union HRD Ministry after 29 long years, the Gujarat government has organized a consultation seminar in Ahmedabad at a city based educational institute. The consultation saw suggestions from various academicians. The Education Minister of Gujarat Bhupendrasigh Chudasma, who was present at the event, said that no other country in the world has been through such a long process for the formation of education policy ever.

He said, while addressing the guests and students at the Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat (KCG) campus, “No country in the world had done such a long process or it had shared experience from all the quarters to draft an education policy, but we will do it and Gujarat has already taken the lead in this (in form of consultation).” He further pointed out that the consultation process for primary education has been an integral part in the state and it has already reached around 12,304 villages out of the total 14049 in the state. 188 out of the 224 blocks have seen consultations in higher and technical education and 19 out of 26 districts have held these consultations after the announcement of the new education policy by the union ministry.

Talking about the status of Gross Enrollment Ratio in the country and in the state, Chudasma said, “Gujarat has GER of 21 percent, while the country has GER of 20 percent, but if you compare it with the developed countries, then we are far behind. The GER in those developed countries would be more than 50 percent. We need to think on this as well. When our Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making efforts to put India at a greater place amongst the developed countries and when the world in considering him as a world leader, it is our responsibility to think to better the enrollment ratio.”