New Delhi Dec 10, 2022: Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Secretary of the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education addressed the FICCI Arise School Education Conference held on December 10, 2022.
Speaking on the “Reboot-Reimagine-Rebuild” theme of the event, Mr. Kumar said, “How do you create an environment in which children learn to make an informed choice and let that choice be respected? This is what our education system intends to do.”
“In 2020, our honorable PM released a New Education Policy which encapsulates the DNA of our society. The policy envisaged how the society is to develop and is to build itself around education,” he further added.
In his address, Mr. Kumar also shed light upon the importance of inculcating adequate linguistic and numeracy skills in children. “In contrast to the previous 10 + 2 schooling system, we now have 5 + 3 + 3 + 4 model with a focus on pre-schools.”
“Another crucial thing that the NEP envisaged is that we should be spending 6% of our GDP on education. While the economy is growing, we shall also invest in education..there is also another tussle going on in our country between education and coaching. However, schools are now getting repopulated in large numbers. There are 260 million students from Class 1 to 12 and 9.6 million teachers are there who are part of these schools,” he said while reiterating the benefits of the initiatives taken up to boost education in India.
“Be it training needs or infrastructural needs, we are doing it and there is absolute political commitments to do things. The guiding principle of ‘Sarvshiksha Abhiyan’ was equity and access and we have great succeeded in that aspect.”
Reiterating the words of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, Mr. Kumar said, “Stay hungry and stay foolish. Let us reimagine before we reboot the system. It is imperative to reimagine our system and we need to get it right the first time.”
Addressing the media, Mr. Kumar said, “Educational programmes are the need of the hour, and although the Government is actively trying to propagate such initiatives, we have to acknowledge the contributions of the private sector and FICCI in particular. It is important that we learn from each other and grow past our past mispractices, because at the end of the day, we owe it to our children.”
“I feel if we make a cumulative effort we’re certain to come up with good results, as we have in the past…There has been a fruitful dialogue today, and three reports have been issued, our next course of action will be to carefully study these reports.”
Speaking to TEN NEWS ranking of the Schools on the pattern of NIRF, he said , “Well up until now, we have been operating on a system of National Grading Index, which in the past would be issued state-wise. 10 days ago, district-wise reports have been released for the first time. Deliberation on this matter has been taking place in the Ministry for some time.”
FICCI ARISE School Education Conference 2022 New Delhi | Photo Highlights
