New Delhi, August 3: All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe on August 2 said the new National Education Policy (NEP) is directing greater autonomy to educational institutions.
“There are only four countries in the world that follow the affiliated system of education — India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The UK that started the system discontinued the practice that we still follow. This policy has taken into account the need for the institutions to become autonomous,” he said.
NEP and multidisciplinary education system
While addressing the 10th edition of the Indian Management Conclave (IMC), Sahasrabudhe highlighted that the NEP talks about the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary higher education system.
“The philosophy of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary is a welcome move as it would enable collaboration between the different streams of education,” he said while releasing a white paper during the conclave.
Pointing out that the management institutions can take a cue from Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) to form clusters with the technical institutes, Sahasrabudhe said that there might be challenges in deciding the fee or how to bring the different managements of the institutions together.
“We need to have a robust framework which is embedded with quality, access, equity, and accountability,” the AICTE Chairman added.
Draft policy is like ‘samudramanthan’
He said the MHRD has already extended the deadline to provide suggestions on the NEP to two weeks and has received over 1.5 lakh suggestions on the draft policy. This is the second time that the MHRD has extended the deadline for submitting suggestions and feedback on the draft policy.
“So there is a lot of churning and synthesis happening over the policy. It is like ‘samudramanthan’ — from which some poison will be emanated and some nectar. And we should rejoice with the nectar and hope there is a Shiva to absorb the poison,” he said.
During the Union Budget 2019 presentation, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had assured that the government will bring in a new National Education Policy to transform India’s higher education system to one of the world’s best education systems.
