A couple of months back, Union HRD Minister, Mr. Prakash Javadekar assured that the draft of New Education Policy (NEP) would be ready by December 2017 . However, the first draft of NEP might be ready by March 2018, as HRD Panel headed by former ISRO Chief sought a three-month extension for framing the NEP. The panel has to submit the report this month and it is unable to frame the NEP due to discussions that are pending with stakeholders.
In the second week of November, the Panel convened its fifth meeting and HRD Minister Javadekar took part in it. During the meeting, the panel assured that the draft of NEP would be ready by December-end. The three-month extension to frame NEP will further delay the subsequent activities like holding parliamentary debate and implementation.
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Javadekar conveyed to the panel that the NEP should be modern, research-oriented and focus on producing better citizens. The NEP will serve the nation for the next 20 years.
Already, the process for framing NEP went on for more than 2 ½ years. While framing the NEP, apart from taking recommendations from stakeholders, the panel also took the suggestions of parents, legislators and students into consideration. The recommendations made by TSR Subramanian committee were taken as ‘inputs’ in 2016 .
The existing NEP was framed in the year 1986, which brought various reforms in the education system. NEP 1986 made a few subjects mandatory in school level for the overall development of children. NEP 1986 was revised in the year 1992.