New Delhi: Set to draft the new education policy, the government will launch an exercise from early next year to collect views from a cross section of the society, involving 2.5 lakh village education councils and organising thousands of meetings at block levels.
The initiative to involve stake holders right from the grassroot level is aimed at making the process broadbased, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said here on Saturday.
The initiative will involve some 2.5 lakh village education councils and organise 6,600 meetings in the block level to get views and suggestions from cross sections of the society, she said at a function here.
"It would be a top-down approach," Smriti said.
"Until now, deliberations on formulation of the new education policy were restricted to only some officers, politicians and some academic experts. And they decided how to educate the country. Today, the world has changed. People should also be heard who are going to be most impacted by the policy," the Minister said.
She said the best practises across the world also need to be studied as also those practises which have failed "so that we can learn from the failure and course correct".
Irani said the first meeting would start with the 2.5 lakh village education councils, giving them an opportunity to share their suggestions. This would be followed by deliberations at the block level where the stakeholders can decide how the new policy should be.
At the district level, parents can participate in the deliberations along with the MPs and MLAs, she said.Stating that education should be channelised for human
development and progress of the country, Irani favoured students fostering an emotional connect with their place and their districts for development to happen.
In this regard, she favoured development of small projects by students in their districts, highlighting the unique character of their place and people, which could be shared with the rest of the country.
"Let students do a project on their district like what makes my block my district historical, what do I take pride in. Make a small video clip. Send it to us and upload it and we will share it as a best study across the country. By this, students can know about people from all corners of the country," she said.
The minister also talked about plans to connect students of Kendriya Vidyalayas with the best of scientists through information and communication technology to ignite their minds and instil in them a sense of inquisitiveness.
