NEP removes pressure on students to forcibly study specific streams: PM Modi

The Centre has said that governments - both central as well as states - should have minimal intervention in the new National Education Policy (NEP). The Prime Minister while addressing the inaugural session of the Governors' Conference on the NEP said that it "belongs to everyone" and should be sustained by all the governments.

"Education policy and education system are important means of fulfilling the aspirations of the country. Centre, state government, local bodies, all are attached to the responsibility of education system. But it is also true that the government, its interference in education policy, its impact, should be minimal. As foreign policy, defence policy are of the country, not government, so is education policy. It belongs to everyone," Mr Narendra Modi said in his address.

In the NEP, which is the first since 1986, the pressure on students for taking specific streams have been removed, he said.

Mr Modi said that the new policy focusses on "learning instead of studying" and is based on "critical thinking rather than curriculum" with a special focus on "passion, practicality, and performance".

The new policy will help tackle the issues of brain drain and help India become a "knowledge economy" in the 21st century, he told the conference, which was also attended by President Ram Nath Kovind, education ministers from states and union territories and vice chancellors besides governors.