NEP a vision document on what India wants to achieve, says MoE secretary

CHENNAI: The National Education Policy (NEP) is not just a document to state what the Government of India is going to do but a vision document on what the country wants to achieve, said Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Additional Secretary of the Union Ministry of Education.

Delivering a keynote address on ‘Skilling the next generation of learners in a digital first ecosystem: The NEP perspective’ at the IIT-Madras’ SWAYAM Plus National Workshop – ‘SkillScape 2024’ here, Barnwal said, “A student can think of completing his degree before 3 or 4 years if he can get the required credits. We all know the pillars of NEP. We understand that the focus is not only the institute but the learner. The campus itself can go to all other places and deliver courses online and many other platforms. This possibility has come because we started thinking from the ‘learning’ and ‘learners’ point of view.

“One key requirement is to make students ‘industry ready’ so that the industry is ready to take them on the day the students graduate. Now, in SWAYAM Plus, the industry designs the course and the institute teaches them. We have got more than one lakh registrations in SWAYAM Plus, which will be extremely useful for students,” he said.

Barnwal added that quality courses would be delivered to the North East as not everyone can be brought to the metro cities. 

The Swayam-NPTEL is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform providing educational opportunities for a vast number of learners. IIT-Madras, which is among the founder institutions of Swayam-NPTEL, runs the SWAYAM Plus platform.

Meanwhile, on his part, IIT-M Director V Kamakoti said that all these developments were happening in the areas of engineering and technology and mostly in academic syllabi, but the industry needed more. 

“SWAYAM Plus will bridge the gap between educational institutions and the industry. Around 20% of the credits can be skill-oriented so that students can be encouraged to take them and make it part of their degree. This will ensure that the students are meeting the industry expectations at the time of graduation,” he noted.

SWAYAM Plus initiative was launched by Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education, on February 27, with a special focus on employability, skilling and industry partnerships.