National Education Policy Discussions to take place by Maharashtra Government

Maharashtra Government has planned to take suggestions from parents, academicians and teachers together in order to help form the National Education Policy, by holding a meeting on 23 November online. This step would help the Ministry of HRD, which is currently in the drafting stage of the policy. The Maharashtra Government has issued a report on the draft of the National New Education Policy and has recommended the tagline to be “100 percent students in schools learning for eight hours a day.”

In the online meeting that is scheduled to take place on 23 November, the Educational Minister of the State, Vinod Tawde has invited suggestions from all segments of the society concerned with education. The report presented by the state on the draft contains 14 themes that emerged out after discussions held in various villages, tehsils, districts and in state levels by the government. It contains 73 questions in these pertinent 14 fields. The state government has shown its consent over partnership of parents in the overall education of the students. It has also pointed out that One Nation One Curriculum and free and compulsory education till secondary education must be made accessible to all in the country through the new education policy.

Talking over the No Detention Policy, which implies to not failing the students till class VIII, the report argued that it should be linked with the learning outcomes and there should be steps like remedial teaching taken in order to fight with the situation. The report also said that there is a need for biometric attendance system in the country for both teachers and students. In order to increase the number of schools and enhance the infrastructure of the schools the report has advocated the promotion of Public Private Partnership model and Corporate Social Responsibility. The report has also demanded the inclusion of face to face distance education and highlighted the importance of ICT based education in the country.

The online meeting would carry the 73 questions that are asked in the report dealing with the major areas of concern. The questions like ‘Why do our schools children not seem to acquire age-appropriate skills in reading, writing and numeracy? Assess the reasons in details” would be there. The answers are expected to be of merit from the concerned people. Best options would be sorted from the comments and would be further provided to the Ministry of HRD as suggestions from various stakeholders in terms of education in the country, who would in turn help in forming the new education policy of the country.