NEP will ensure quality and affordable education: Javadekar

The new National Education Policy will ensure accessibility, equity, quality, affordability and accountability, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said on Thursday.

Addressing a webinar on the National Education Policy (NEP), Javadekar said he had seen the process of formulation of the policy closely when he was the Human Resource Development minister.

This is an education policy that will take India forward as it will provide accessibility, equity, quality, affordability and accountability, he said at the webinar organised by the Vidyapeeth Vikas Manch, National Yuva Cooperative Society and the Savitribai Phule, Pune University.

If one studies the policy, one will realise that education for all is its basis, the Information and Broadcasting minister said.

"Those students who do not come in the school system, there is an attempt to bring them under the system," said Javadekar, who was the HRD minister from July 2016-May 2019.

There are about three crore students in the college system right now and the aim under the policy is to double that number, Javadekar said.

While one out of four people now go from school to college, the aim is to ensure that the number increases to two out of four, he said, adding that this is a major initiative.

"A big thrust has been given to research and innovation in higher education," Javadekar said.

The NEP approved by the Union Cabinet replaces the 34-year-old National Policy on Education framed in 1986 and is aimed at paving the way for transformational reforms in school and higher education systems to make India a global knowledge superpower.

Choice between 3 or 4 year undergraduate courses, multiple entry and exit options in degree courses, adding 3.5 crore seats in higher education institutions, which will now have a single regulator, discontinuation of M.Phil programmes and fixation of fees are among the higher education reforms outlined in the new NEP.